BV  4235  .E8  Z5 
Zincke,  F.  Barham  1817-1893 
The  duty  and  the  discipline 
of  extemporary  preaching 


^  STATiniurB 


ON  EXTEMPORARY  PREACHING. 


THE 


DUTY  AND  THE  DISCIPLINE 


EXTEMPORARY  PREACHING, 


BT       , 

F.  BARHAM^mCKE, 

TICAR  OF  T7HERSTEAD,  AND  CHAPLAIN  IN  ORDINARY  TO  THE  QUEEN. 


THE  FIKST   AMERICAN   FROM  THE  SECOND   LONDON  EDITION. 


NEM^  YORK: 
CHARLES    SORIBNER    &    CO, 

1867. 

PUBLISHED   BT  ARRANGEMENT  WITH  TH2   AUTHOR. 


JaS.  E.  llODGERS, 

Electrotyper  and  Printer, 
Philadelphia. 


Press  of 
The  New  York  Printing  Co. 


2^>?;caiScT(^}i: 


NOTE  TO  THE  AMERICAN  READER. 


In  publishing  in  the  United  States  a  second  Edition 
of  the  present  work,  I  ask  permission  for  a  few  words 
of  explanation.  It  is  evident  that  the  following  pages 
were  written  for  English  readers;  and  especially  for 
the  members  of  the  Church  of  England.  I  have  not 
thought  it  advisable  in  bringing  the  work  out  in  America, 
to  make  any  alterations  in  this  respect.  I  am  not  suf- 
ficiently acquainted  with  the  methods  and  style  of 
Preaching  in  the  American  Churches  to  enable  me  to 
make  any  attempt  to  address  myself  directly  to  those 
who  minister  in  those  Churches.  I  have  only  heard 
from  competent  judges  that  their  general  style  of 
preaching  is  in  advance  of  ours ;  and  that  this  in  a 
great  measure  arises  from  their  having  paid  more  at- 
tention to  Extemporary  Preaching  than  we  have. 
Here  therefore  we  have  probably  rather  to  learn  of 
them  than  they  of  us. 

My  leaving,   however,  everything  in  this  Edition 


VI  TO    THE    AMERICAN    READER. 

just  as  it  is  addressed  to  English  Churchmen,  will 
have  for  our  American  brethren  the  advantage  of  ena- 
bling them  to  understand  to  some  extent  which  is  the 
existing  state  of  things,  and  of  practice,  and  what  are 
some  of  the  ideas  now  at  work  in  the  Church  of  the 
Old  Country. 

I  have  ahvays  lived  in  the  hope  of  some  day  being 
able  to  visit  the  Great  Republic,  that  I  might  see,  and 
judge  for  myself  of  the  various  aspects  of  Society  in 
what  is  the  last,  and  bids  fair  to  be  the  greatest  work 
of  Time.  Nor  have  I  entirely  laid  aside  the  hope  of 
being  yet  able  to  accomplish  this  long  cherished  wish. 
The  more  the  two  people  see  of  each  other,  the  better, 
I  believe,  it  will  be  for  each.  May  God  speed  equally 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  every  effort  to  improve  in 
any  way  Man's  Estate. 

The  events  of  last  summer  added  a  fourth  to  the 
great,  progressive,  growing,  imperial  powers  of  the 
world.  Of  these  four  three  are  now  Teutonic.  In 
the  face  of  these  four  great  Powers  the  stationary  and 
even  retrograde  Latin  race  ceases  to  be  of  any  real 
weight  in  the  affairs  of  the  world.  Their  role  is  played 
out.  The  destinies  of  mankind  have  passed  into  other 
hands.  And  if  it  be  in  the  Future  that  the  sceptre 
of  the  world  shall  be  held  by  the  Western  Continent, 
and  that  it  shall  become  the  centre  of  mental  activity, 
and  the  home  of  moral  and  social  progress,  then  the 


TO    THE   AMERICAN    READER.  vii 

Parent,  his  own  day  not  having  been  ill-spent,  may 
well  rejoice  to  see  his  vigorous  Child  advancing  still 
farther  along  the  old  familiar  path ;  and  as  has  ever 
been  the  custom  of  the  race,  teaching  the  nations  how 
to  live. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION. 


On  looking  over  my  completed  Avork  I  feel  that  it 
argument  and  recommendations  are  so  presented  a& 
almost  to  assume  tlie  character  of  a  chapter  of  Mental 
Autobiography.  This  has  been  done  to  a  far  greater 
extent  than  was  contemplated  in  the  forecast  of  the 
book.  I  find  in  fiict  that  I  have  given  but  little  heed 
to  the  proverbial  caution,  if  I  may  be  allowed  a  ref- 
erence to  it  here,  against  admitting  spectators  behind 
the  scenes;  and  which  ought  to  be  observed  most 
carefully  when  the  indiscretion  to  be  guarded  against 
is  that  of  revealing  what  passes  behind  the  scenes  of  a 
man's  own  mind.  But  I  shall  not  regret  having  neg- 
lected it,  if  by  so  doing  I  shall  have  been  enabled  to 
impart  to  the  treatment  of  my  subject  some  of  that 
kind  of  interest,  which  it  could  not  have  possessed, 
had  it  been  dealt  with  in  an  abstract  and  impersonal 
form.  Perhaps,  also,  it  will  be  better  that  what  I 
submit  to  the  consideration  of  my  brethren  in  the 
Sacred  Ministry,  should  not  be  set  forth  didactically, 
but  as  the  experience  of  a  brother  Minister  of  the 
Word.  At  all  events,  whatever  may  be  the  estimate 
viii 


PREFACE    TO    THE    FIRST    EDITION.  IX 

put  on  mj  specific  recommendations,  most  people  will, 
I  suppose,  agree  with  me  in  thinking  that  it  would  be 
of  advantage  to  the  Church  that  some  effort  be  made, 
and  that  is  mj  aim,  to  improve  the  delivery  of  the 
spoken  Word. 

I  take  this  opportunity  to  say  that  in  the  Notes 
and  Studies  of  Sermons,  which  form  the  latter  part 
of  the  volume,  I  had  but  one  object  in  view — that  of 
illustrating  in  some  particulars  my  previous  remarks 
on  Preaching.  In  selecting  the  Sermons  that  seemed 
suitable  for  this  purpose  from  those  I  preached  during 
the  time  I  was  engaged  in  writing  the  first  part  of  the ' 
book,  I  passed  by  all  that  were  of  a  purely  doctrinal 
character,  because  I  shrank  from  dissecting,  and  from 
regarding,  in  a  rhetorical  light,  the  treatment  of  the 
most  sacred  of  all  subjects. 

Many  are  asking  how  the  efficiency  of  the  Church 
may  be  so  increased  as  to  enable  her  to  meet  the 
peculiar  and  pressing  difficulties  of  the  times.  No 
one  would  think  of  limiting  the  reply  to  any  single 
measure,  or  recommendation.  The  following  pages 
endeavor  to  direct  attention  to  vrhat  I  would  beg  per- 
mission to  call  a  more  instructed,  and  if  so,  then  a 
more  fruitful  use  of  the  oldest  and  most  necessary  of 
all  the  means  that  have  been  committed  to  the  Church 
for  enabling  her  to  propagate  the  Faith. 

Wherstead  Vicarage, 
Oct.  1,  18G0. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION. 


Several  readers  of  the  first  edition  of  this  work  have 
asked  what  proportion  of  the  Clergy  I  suppose  capa- 
ble of  becoming  Extemporary  Preachers?  This  may 
mean,  either  what  proportion  of  the  existing  body  of 
the  Clergy,  many  of  whom,  of  course,  are  now  inca- 
pacitated in  one  way  or  another  for  making  the  at- 
tempt ;  or  it  may  mean  what  proportion  of  another 
generation  who  may  be  supposed  to  enter  Holy  Orders 
with  the  knowledge  that  they  must,  if  possible,  preach 
in  this  manner,  and,  therefore,  who  will  all  make  the 
attempt  to  satisfy  public  opinion  on  the  point.  I  have 
heard  this  question  answered  by  another.  Every 
Barrister  acquires  the  power  of  speaking  in  public, 
and  as  the  education  of  the  two  Professions  is  the 
same,  why  should  not  every  clergyman?  This  is  not 
a  complete  reply,  because  in  respect  of  the  point  in 
question  the  two  cases  are  not  precisely  similar.  No 
one  becomes  a  Barrister  who  supposes  that  he  has  any 
disqualification  for  speaking  in  public;  while  many 
who  believe,  with  or  without  reason,  that  they  labor 
under  disqualifications  of  this  kind  enter  Holy  Orders. 


PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION.  XI 

Besides  tlie  subjects  the  Clergyman  lias  to  handle  are 
inuch  more  difficult  to  speak  upon  than  the  matters  of 
fact  on  wliich  the  Barrister  founds  his  addresses.  And 
the  style,  too,  of  speaking  required  of  the  Clergyman, 
demands  more  accuracy  of  expression,  more  smooth- 
ness, and  more  finish.  Against  this,  however,  we  may 
set,  for  what  it  is  worth,  the  consideration  that  the 
pulpit  the  Clergyman  must  enter  every  Sunday  sup- 
plies to  him,  from  the  beginning  of  his  career,  more 
constant  opportunities  for  practice  than  the  bar  does 
to  young  Barristers.  And  in  large  parishes,  there 
are  many  occasions,  and  in  all  some,  besides  the  regular 
Sunday  Sermons,  upon  which  addresses  of  one  kind  or 
another  are  now  required  from  a  Clergyman. 

But  I  would  ask  any  one  of  my  reverend  brethren, 
who  may  be  disposed  to  take  a  lower  estimate  than  I 
do  of  the  capacity  in  this  respect  of  the  Clergy,  to  call 
over  mentally  the  muster-roll  of  the  Incumbents  of  the 
Deanery  to  which  he  belongs,  considering,  as  he  goes 
along,  what  kind  of  a  Preacher  each  would  probably 
have  become  had  he  through  several  years  (and  in  this 
matter  little  can  be  done  in  a  year  or  two)  set  himself 
resolutely  to  the  task  of  acquiring  the  mastery  of  his 
general  subject,  and  of  the  particular  subject  of  each 
discourse,  together  with  a  proper  understanding  of 
the  best  way  of  presenting  what  he  has  to  say  to  the 
minds  of  the  congregation.  Whoever  will  make  this 
survey  of  his  neighbors,  will,  I  think,   come  to  the 


Xll  PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION. 

conclusion  that  in  the  case  of  almost  every  individual, 
something  far  better  than  his  present  power  of  de- 
livering the  Word  would  have  been  attained.  In 
some,  of  course,  this  point  would  be  very  far  in  ad- 
vance of  what  it  would  be  in  others  ;  and  some  would 
require  a  much  shorter  time  to  reach  it  than  others ; 
but,  in  every  case,  the  gains  would  presumably  be  very 
great.  No  one  would  doubt  that  it  would  be  so  in 
writing.  But  as  speaking  is  the  most  natural  method 
of  communicating  thought  and  feeling,  while  writing 
is,  if  not  an  artificial  method,  at  all  events  a  less  na- 
tural one,  I  believe  that  every  one  who  has  become, 
or  who  would  have  become,  a  moderately  good  writer, 
which  is  the  alternative  supposed,  would  with  the 
same  amount  of  pains,  I  cannot  but  think  a  less 
amount,  have  become  a  moderately  good  speaker. 
We  must  suppose  a  considerable  amount  of  pains 
taken,  because  a  Clergyman,  with  a  view  to  properly 
qualifying  himself  for  his  sacred  office  of  delivering 
the  Word  of  God,  cannot  give  himself  less  trouble 
than  artists,  barristers,  literary  men,  or  those  who  be- 
long to  any  secular  occupation  do,  to  perfect  them- 
selves in  the  work  of  their  professions  or  trades.  If 
then  this  were  begun  early  and  resolutely  persevered 
in,  I  believe  the  cases  would  be  very  few  in  which  the 
Clergyman  would  fail  in  the  power  of  grasping  his 
subject  with  sufficient  firmness,  and  of  expressing  with 
sufficient  correctness  and  readiness  what  he  had  firmly 


PREFACE   TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION.  XIU 

grasped,  for  a  discourse  of  half  an  hour.  There  is  no 
question  in  these  pages  except  of  Clergymen  who  en- 
deavor conscientiously  to  do  their  duty;  it  is,  there- 
fore, conceded  that  the  writer  of  Sermons  goes  on  year 
after  year  taking  pains  with  the  composition  of  his 
sermons,  and  doing  this  part  of  his  work  to  the  best 
of  his  ability.  Imagine  then,  that  instead  of  these 
pains  having  been  bestowed  on  writing  only,  he  had 
labored  with  equal  honesty  and  perseverance  at  the 
other  method  of  preparation  and  delivery;  and  what- 
ever success  would  have  attended  him  as  a  writer, 
would  also,  I  presume,  and  generally  to  a  higher  de- 
gree, have  attended  him  as  a  speaker. 

I  remember  having  been  told  by  the  present  Bishop 
of  British  Columbia,  (he  was  then  incumbent  of  Great 
Yarmouth)  that  he  had  up  to  that  time  engaged 
twenty-seven  curates — he  kept  what  might  be  called  a 
corps  of  six — and  that  in  engaging  each,  he  had  stipu- 
lated for  a  certain  amount  of  Extemporary  Preaching. 
The  rule  was  that  the  new  comer  was  to  commence 
with  school-room  expositions,  and  week-day  lectures; 
and  that  after  some  months  of  this  preliminary  work 
he  must  preach  without  book  once  on  the  Sunday. 
Dr.  Hills  had  found  that  in  every  case  of  this  large 
number  of  curates,  no  matter  what  the  man's  antece- 
dents, or  disposition,  or  habits;  no  matter  how  timid, 
or  studious,  or  unstudious,  he  might  have  been,  the 


XIV  PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION. 

desired  result  had  been  attained.  The  man  became 
capable  of  speaking  in  public.  In  this  matter,  I  would 
not,  however,  apply  the  iron  rule  the  incumbent  of 
Great  Yarmouth  did,  and  with  such  complete  success. 
Perhaps  it  would  be  better  that  public  opinion  should 
require  of  every  Minister  of  the  Word  (a  point  towards 
which  I  think  we  are  moving)  that  he  should  endeavor 
to  the  best  of  his  ability,  to  attain  to  the  most  effective 
method  of  addressing  a  congregation  on  the  things  that 
belong:  unto  their  salvation.  If,  under  such  a  state  of 
things,  one  out  of  three  should  fail  to  attain  his  direct 
object,  still  he  will  have  received  no  injury,  either 
morally  or  intellectually,  from  having  made  the  at- 
tempt; and  the  Church  will  be  a  very  great  gainer 
from  the  success  of  the  other  two. 

One  word  more.  We  are  obliged  to  presume  that 
every  youth  who  is  admitted  to  Holy  Orders,  is  already 
qualified  for  preaching  the  Word.  At  all  events,  it  is 
our  practice  to  exact  it  indiscriminately  from  all  from 
the  day  of  their  ordination.  This  may  be,  and  probably 
is,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  a  necessity. 
It  may  also  be  really  the  wisest  thing  to  do — to  set  the 
young  Minister  to  work  to  learn  this  part  of  his  duty 
in  the  best  way  for  learning  any  thing,  that  is  by 
doing  it.  A  main  part  of  the  aim  of  the  following 
pa.ges  is  to  convince  the  understanding  and  the  con- 
science of  those   about  to  seek,  or  who  have  lately 


PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION.  XV 

been  admitted  to  Holy  Orders,  that,  however  earnest 
and  devoted  they  may  be,  still  they  have  many  years 
of  hard  intellectual  work  in  prospect,  before  they  can 
hope  to  become  thoroughly  furnished  and  able  Min- 
isters of  the  Word. 


C^^TV  OT  rnnc, 


^*?/calS9A^ 


CONTENTS. 


Note  to  the  American  reader v 

Preface  to  the  first  edition viii 

Preface  to  the  second  edition x 

CHAPTER  I. 

MY    OWN    MOTIVES    AND    REASONS    FOR    PREACHING    EX    TEMPORE. 

SOME    OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED. 

SECTION.  PAGE. 

1.  Object  and  plan  of  the  work 1 

2.  "Why  confined  to  the  wi'iter's  personal  experience   ...       2 

3.  Difi&culties  of   sermon-writing  at  the    beginning  of  my 

clerical  life.     My  first  year 3 

4.  The  six  following  years 5 

5 — 7.  Become  persuaded  that  it  would  be  better  to  preach 

ex  tempore,  than  to  read  written  sermons     ....       6 

8.  Reasons  that  weighed  with  me.     Sermons  often  spoken 

disparagingly  of.     Not  so  with  other  kinds  of  public 
speaking 9 

9.  Fondness  for  hearing  public  speaking  a  characteristic  of 

European  civilization 10 

10.  Why  so 11 

11.  The    advantages     the     preacher    possesses     for    public 

speaking 12 

12.  Good  preachers  would  be  of  much  service  to  the  Church     13 
13 — 16.  Shown  by  the  history  of  the  Church ib. 

17.  The  Minister  of  the  Word  cannot  be,  what  he  ought  to  be, 

a  Teacher,  unless  he  be  able  to  speak  in  public    .     .     IG 

18.  This  his  speciality;  for  good  moral  character  is  required 

of  the  laity  as  well  as  of  the  clergy 18 

19.  Its  utility  to  the  clergy  at  vestry  and  other  parochial  and 

public  meetings 21 

20.  Useful  also  as  it  enables  them  to  give  lectures    ....     22 

2*  xvii 


XVlll  CONTENTS. 

SECTION.  PAGE. 

21.  Of  more  use  to  our  Clergy  tlian  to  tlie  Priest  of  the  Church 

of  Rome  or  Dissenting  Ministers 23 

22.  We   should  acquire  this  power  out  of  consideration  for 

the  wishes  of  our  parishioners 25 

23.  Not  an  answer,  that  the  Church  does  not  formally  require 

this  of  the  Clergy 27 

24 — 2G.  Why  we  must  consider  the  wants  and  wishes  of  the 

lower  classes 29 

27.  How  the  question — Which  is  best,  to  read  written  ser- 

mons, or  to  preach  ex  tempore  ?  ought  to  be  put     .     .     33 

28.  Extemporary  Preaching   secures    continuous   study  and 

improvement 35 

29.  As  it  presupposes  writing,  it  will  also  secure  accuracy     .  38 

30.  This  is  the  natural  and  most  impressive  method  of  delivery  39 

31.  Answer  to  the   objection,   that  it  is   an   offering   which 

costs  nothing 41 

32.  And  that  it  takes  too  much  time.     It  is  not  learning  a 

sermon  by  rote,  but  mastering  the  subject  ....  43 

33.  It  is  a  security  against  verbal  repetitions 44 

34.  It  is  too  earnest  and  direct  for  some  hearers       ....  45 

35.  False  inferences  in  favor  of  reading,  from  false  analogies  4G 

36.  The  true  Preacher  very  different  from  the  popular  Preacher  4G 

CHAPTER  II. 

MY    OWN    METHOD    O?    ACQUIRING    THE    POWER    OF    PREACIIING 
EX    TEMPORE. 

1.  The  method  I  adopted.     How  sermons  for  Extemporary 

Preaching  should  be  studied  and  composed     ...     49 

2.  Necessity  of  previous  study  and  composition      ....     51 

3.  Sermons  written  for  reading  proved  quite  unfit  for  Ex- 

temporary Preaching, 54 

4.  Advisable  to  prepare  MSS.  for  Extemporary  Preaching  on 

all  Scriptures  upon  which  one  would  wish  to  preach     55 

5.  Result   of  twelve  years'  experience.     The  Extemporary 

Preacher  will  never  preach  the  same  sermon  twice  .     56 

6.  The  chief  difficulty  is  to  make  the  first  effort      ....     58 

7.  What  feelings  harder  to  bear  than  the  distress  of  having 

to  speak  ex  tempore 60 


CONTENTS.  Xix 

SECTION.  PAGE. 

8.  In  some  cases  Exposition  may  be  nsed  as  training  for  Ex- 

temporary Preaching GO 

9.  Reflections  and  hints  on  the  actual  practice  of  Extemporary 

Preaching  suggested.     The  years  1854,  1855,  185G  .  64 

10.  The  year  1857 66 

11.  The  same  year  continued 71 

12.  The  year  1858  , 73 

13.  The  year  1850 76 

CHAPTER   III. 

SOME    REMARKS    ON    THE    COJIPOSITION    OF    SERMONS. 

1.  Composition    of    sermons — their    effectiveness    depends 

upon  it 78 

2 — 3.  They  must,  first  of  all,  be  vertebrate  compositions     .  ib 

4    To  be  regarded  as  works  of  art  of  a  high  order       ...  79 

5.  Must  have  unity  of  purpose 80 

6.  What  better  in  sermons  than  natural  eloquence       .     !     .  82 
7 — 10,  Respective  claims  of  ordinary  phraseology  and  that 

of  our  English  Bible 83 

11.  Openings  of  sermons  will  generally  be  composed  last  .     .  87 

12.  Further  remarks  on  the  opening  sentence 88 

13 — 15.  Concluding  sentence  difficult,  and  of  different  kinds  ib 

16.  What  to  be  avoided  in  conclusions 90 

17.  Uniformity  of  plan  to  be  avoided.     How.     Announcement 

of  divisions  to  be  avoided 92 

18.  Repetition  of  ideas  to  be  avoided 93 

19.  Exhortation  necessary — in  what  it  consists 94 

20.  Light  and  shade  necessary 96 

21.  22.  Correct  emphasis.     Natural  in  speaking,  diflficult   in 

reading ib 

CHAPTER  IV. 

SOME    REMARKS    ON    THE    AIMS    AND    SUBJECTS    OF    SERMONS. 

1.  Subjects  and  aims  of  Modern  Preaching.     Several  epochs 

in  the  history  of  the  Church.     Each  has  its  own  dis- 
tinctiye  character 102 

2.  The  character  of  the  age  must  be  attended  to.     The  safe- 

guard provided  against  carrying  this  to  an  extreme.  102 


XX  CONTENTS. 

SECTION,  PAGE. 

3.  How  Christ  is  all  in  all  in  the  Word.     He  must  be  so  to 

the  Preacher 105 

4.  It  would  be  mischievous,  if  it  were  possible,  to  revive  a 

bj^gone  epoch 106 

5.  Sermons  must  not  be  regarded  as  Confessions  of  Faith     .   109 

6.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  as  mere  Bridgewater  Treatises, 

or  moral  essays Ill 

7.  How  the  preacher  must  regard  the  increased  scientitic 

knowledge  and  the  historical  and  Biblical  criticism 

of  the  present  day Ill 

8.  He  must  consider  the  change  in  the  relation  of  the  intel- 

ligence of  the  congregation  to  that  of  the  preacher    .   113 

9.  Also  the  enlargement  of  the  means  of  instruction    .     .     .  114 

10.  These  changes  suggest  the  justice  of  some  of  the  common 

complaints  against  sermons 114 

11.  Aims  of  different  kinds  of  preachers.     Those  who  aim  at 

strictly   theological    instruction.      Those   who    take 
wider  views 115 

12.  Those  who  aim  at  awakening  religious  emotion     .     .     .116 

13.  Those  who  regard  sermons  as  a  department  of  the  Belles 

Letires 117 

14.  Those  who  disparage  sermons 118 

15.  Those   who   regard   sermons   as  a  part   of  the   service. 

Those  who  regard  them  as  a  part  of  their  duty     •     .119 

CHAPTER  V. 

SOME    REMARKS    0\    THE    PLACE    ASSIGNED    TO    PREACHING     IN    THE 
WORD    OF    GOD,    AND    IN    OUR    SERVICE. 

1.  The  place  assigned  to  preaching  in  the  Word.     First  in 

the  Old  Dispensation 120 

2.  Then  in  the  New 122 

3.  Preacher,  how  far  synonymous  with  prophet     ....   123 

4.  The  want  of  preachers  still,  and  always  will  be,  great     .   124 

5.  Answer  to  the  disparaging  remark,  that  people  do  not  go 

to  Church  to  hear  sermons,  but  to  pray 127 

6.  And  that  hearing  sermons  is  inferior  to  praying     .     .     .   128 

7.  A  cause  for  these  objections 

The  fault  of  giving  sermons  too  prominent  a  place  in  the 

service 130 


CONTENTS.  XXI 

SECTION.  PAGE. 

8.  Proper  length  of  sermons.     Bad  effects  of  making  them 

too  long 131 

9.  Modern  failure  in  making  the  Church  attractive     .     .     .   133 

10.  The  fault  not  in   human  nature,   which,   as   all   history- 

shows,  has  a  strong  instinct  for  united  worship     .     .   133 

11.  Nor  in  Christianity 13G 

12.  Those  who  are  repelled,  say  it  is  because  what  is  pre- 

sented'to  them  is  not  so  much  a  religion  as  a  form     .  137 

13.  This  intelligible,  and  not  unreasonable  or  irreligious  .     .138 

14.  Christianity,  as  presented  by  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Apostle 

to  the  Gentiles,  had  power  to  convert  the  world    .     .139 

15.  The  satisfying  plenteousness  of  God's  house,  as  appre- 

hended by  the  Psalmist 1-iO 

16.  The  excellence  of  our  form  of  public  worship,  as  compared 

with  those  services  which  make  too  much  of  preaching  141 

17.  And  with  those  which  disparage  it 142 

18.  IIow  the  different  factors  of  a  religious  service  are  bal- 

anced in  our  Liturgy 143 

19.  The   effect  of  this  admirable  service  may  be  weakened 

through  faults  in  those  who  conduct  it 144 

20.  The  high  and  responsible  duty  of  the  Minister  of  the 

Word  in  this  matter 144 


ITOTES  FOE  SIX   SERMOTTS. 

WITH  OBSERVATIONS  TPON  EACH. 

The  object  of  giving  these  sermons,  and  of  the  observations  that 
accompany  them,  is  to  illustrate  what  has  been  said  in  the  pre- 
vious part  of  the  work  upon  the  composition  of  sermons,  and 
upon  the  way  in  which  the  modern  preacher  should  treat  his 
subject. 

SERMON  I. 

Isaiah  xxviii.  10. — Here  a  little,  and  there  a  little    ....  151 
Observations  on  the  foregoing  Sermon •  162 


XXll  CONTENTS. 

SERMON  II. 

2  Corinthians  xi,  23— 27.— Wliat  we  are  to  seek  in  life       .     .168 
Observations  on  the  foregoing  Sermon 179 

SERMON  III. 

Luke  xi.  24 — 26. — The  return  of  the  unclean  spirit  .     .     .     .185 
Observations  on  the  foregoing  Sermon      .......  194 

SERMON  TV. 

Acts  X.  1,  2. — The  Centurion  of  Cresarea 196 

Observations  on  the  foregoing  Sermon 211 

SERMON  V. 

Matthew  viii.  10,  13 — The  Centurion  of  Capernaum      .     .     .  215 
Observations  on  the  foregoing  Sermon 224 

SERMON  VI. 

Luke  iii.  10 — 14. — The  sense  of  sin  and  the  sense  of  duty- 
lead  to  Faith 227 

Observations  on  the  foregoing  Sermon 241 


SIX  SHORT  STUDIES  FOR  SERMONS. 
STUDY  I. 

Deuteronomy  vii.  6,  7. — God  has  important  work  for  the  least 

among  us 245 


STUDY  II. 

Deuteronomy  xii.  8. — Some  limitations  to  self-will   ....  248 


CONTENTS.  XXIU 

STUDY  III. 

Psalm  cvi.  14,  15. — "We  tempt  God  hy  our  desires     ....  250 

STUDY  IV. 

John  xviii.  38.— What  is  truth  ? 253 

STUDY  V. 

James  ii.  10. — The  offender  in  one  point 256 

STUDY  VI. 

1  John  iv.  8. — God  is  revealed  to  us  by  our  hearts  ....  260 


01  EXTEMPORARY  PREACHmG. 


I  DO  not  propose  to  write  in  the  follow-      ^-  Object 

and  plan  of 

ing  pages  a  treatise  upon  Preaching,  for  the  work, 
many  treatises  have  already  been  written  on  this 
subject,  without,  I  believe,  proving  of  the  use  their 
writers  contemplated.  A  failure  of  this  kind  might 
have  been  anticipated,  from  the  fact  that  the  writer 
of  a  treatise  endeavors  to  take  a  complete  view  of  his 
subject,  and  therefore  devotes  a  large  part  of  his 
work  to  what  has  little  or  no  connection  with  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  times  and  the  wants  of  his  readers. 
Both  my  object  and  my  method  of  procedure  will  be 
different  from  those  of  the  writer  of  a  treatise.  I 
shall  limit  myself  to  the  aim  of  submitting  to  those 
among  my  clerical  brethren  who  read  their  sermons, 
first  some  considerations  in  favor  of  Extemporary 
Preaching,  and  then  a  method  by  which  in  many  in- 
stances the  power  of  Extemporary  Preaching  may  be 
attained   even  by  those   who  may  not  make  the  at- 


Z  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

tempt  to  acquire  it  till  middle  life  has  been  reached. 
In  doing  this  I  shall  have  to  offer  some  suggestions 
on  the  composition  and  aims  of  sermons,  and  to  touch 
upon  some  other  matters  connected  with  mj  subject. 
2.  Why  In  carryinsf  out  my  plan  I  shall  only 

confined  to  .  . 

the  writer's  speak  of  those  questions  which  I  found  my- 
experience,  sclf  called  upon  to  solve,  and  of  those  diffi- 
culties with  which  I  was  myself  confronted,  in  my  ef- 
forts to  carry  out  what  I  am  about  to  recommend  to 
others.  Every  body  must  feel  repugnance  to  speak 
about  himself,  particularly  on  such  a  subject;  and  I 
trust  that  my  readers,  before  we  part  company,  will 
have  come  to  understand  why  I  am  setting  myself  to 
do  what  I  should  have  as  much  disinclination  for  as 
any  of  themselves,  had  I  not  what  I  consider  a  suffi- 
cient motive.  I  know  that  in  what  I  shall  have  to 
say  about  myself  there  is  nothing  of  any  interest  or 
importance  to  make  it  worth  repeating  for  its  own 
sake;  and  if  I  had  not  in  view  an  object  which  I 
think  it  very  desirable  to  promote,  and  which  1  thmk 
may  be  promoted  in  this  way,  I  should  not  have  a 
word  to  say  about  any  thing  I  thought  or  attempted. 
People  who  are  entering  on  any  course  will  generally 
find  something  serviceable  in  the  experience  of  those 
who  have  gone  before;  and  what  the  events  and 
thoughts  of  the  day  have  brought  one  clergyman  to 
feel,  others  may  now  be  feeling  more  or  less  dis- 
tinctly; and  some,  perhaps,  may  find  that  the  course 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  ^ 

the  writer  of  these  pages  adopted  for  carrying  out  his 
convictions  may  be  pursued  successfully  by  them- 
selves. At  all  events,  I  trust  that  my  way  of  treat- 
ing the  subject  will  save  the  reader  from  some  useless 
discussions  and  unnecessary  considerations. 

I  was  ordained  in  the  year  1840  to  the       3-  Difficul- 
ties of  ser- 
curacy  of  Andover,  in  Hampshire,  a  town    mon  writing 

containing  a  population  of  between  four  ning  of  my 
and  five  thousand  souls,  inclusive  of  two  or  ^y^first  ^ 
three  outlying  hamlets,  in  one  of  which  y®^^'* 
was  a  chapel  of  ease  to  the  church  in  the  town.  But 
I  confine  myself  to  the  subject  of  Preaching.  Two 
sermons  were  required  of  me  each  Sunday.  I  began 
this  part  of  my  work,  as  I  suppose  was  generally  the 
case  at  that  time,  perfectly  unprepared.  I  had  not  a 
single  written  sermon;  nor  had  I  ever  attempted  to 
write  one,  or  in  any  way  given  the  subject  of  sermon- 
WTiting  a  thought.  I  had  supposed  that,  as  I  had 
some  fondness  for  literary  pursuits,  I  should  find  no 
difiiculty  in  doing  this  part  of  my  work.  So  I  had 
thought.  In  the  first  week,  however,  I  discovered 
that  I  was  greatly  mistaken.  An  historical  or  criti- 
cal essay,  of  such  calibre  as  might  be  expected  from 
one  of  my  years,  or  a  copy  of  Latin  verses,  would 
have  been  an  easier  task  for  me  than  writing  a  ser- 
mon proved  to  be.  At  the  time,  I  thought  this  was 
to  be  attributed  to  want  of  familiarity  with  my  sub- 
ject, and  with  the  style  of  composition  it  required. 


4  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

The  experiencej  however,  of  twenty-five  years  has 
shown  me  that  I  was  only  partially  right  in  this  sup- 
position. I  now  know  that  sermon-writing  requires  a 
greater  variety  of  qualifications  than  perhaps  any 
other  kind  of  composition,  and  is  therefore  propor- 
tionately difiicult.  A  sermon,  just  like  all  other 
literary  work  that  is  presented  to  the  attention  of  the 
public,  demands  a  certain  amount  of  literary  skill. 
This  should  never  be  wanting;  and  educated  people 
have  a  right  to  complain  when  they  find  a  clergyman 
undertaking  the  ofiice  of  a  public  teacher  and 
preacher  without  this  indispensable  requisite.  But 
besides  this  it  is  necessary  that  he  should  possess  a 
considerable  amount  of  logical  acumen,  because  every 
sermon  may  be  regarded  as  the  preacher's  exposition 
of  a  portion  of  what  has  come  to  be  a  very  compli- 
cated system  of  theology — of  a  system,  at  all  events, 
which  is  controverted  at  every  point.  Another  re- 
quirement is  some  acquaintance  with  what  is  under- 
stood by  the  term  human  nature,  because  the  preacher 
has  to  deal  with  man's  feelings  and  instincts,  and 
with  the  secret  springs  of  conduct,  both  with  what  is 
degrading  and  defiling,  and  with  his  purest  and 
highest  aspirations.  A  certain  amount  also  of  elo- 
quence, or  at  least  of  the  power  of  so  speaking  as  to 
secure  the  attention,  is  requisite;  for  a  sermon  is  an 
address  to  a  present  audience  for  the  very  purpose  of 
moving  and  persuading  them.     I  may  also  add,  that 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHIXG.  5 

if  the  preacher  be  unacquainted  with  the  many  very 
important  questions  arising  out  of  the  recent  enlarge- 
ments of  our  historical,  critical,  philological,  and 
scientific  knowledge,  questions  which  are  ever  being 
discussed  in  society,  he  will  adopt  a  tone  in  his 
preaching  which  Avill  necessarily  fail  to  conciliate  the 
attention  of  the  most  thous^htful  and  best  informed 
of  his  congregation.  When  I  commenced  sermon- 
writing,  I  was  but  scantily  provided  with  any  of 
these  qualifications,  and  wholly  unprovided  with  some 
of  them ;  and,  as  I  had  to  produce  two  sermons  each 
week,  it  will  not  surprise  any  one  that  I  found  the 
task  a  very  difficult  one,  and  one  which  I  was  only 
able  to  perform  in  a  very  unsatisfactory  manner. 
I  remained  at   Andover    a   year,   and       4.  The  six 

following 

then  removed  to  the  joint  curacies  of  two  years, 
small  contiguous  parishes  in  the  neighborhood  of  Ips- 
wich. In  the  year  I  was  at  Andover  I  managed  by 
very  hard  work,  to  write  nearly  one  hundred  sermons; 
but  I  was  so  ashamed  of  them,  that  on  going  to  my  new 
curacy  I  destroyed  them,  thinking  that  after  a  year's 
practice  I  must  be  able  to  write  something  less  un- 
worthy of  my  subject.  I  remained  in  this  double 
curacy  for  six  years,  having  on  each  Sunday  to  per- 
form one  service  in  each  parish.  As  the  two  villages 
were  very  close  to  each  other,  a  part  of  my  morning 
and  afternoon  congregations  was  composed  of  the 
same  persons.  During  the  time  I  remained  in  these 
1* 


6  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

curacies  I  wrote  three  hundred  sermons.     I  then  be- 
came Incumbent  of  one  of  these  two  parishes,  that  of 
Wherstead. 
5.  Become        I  liad  now  been  seven  years  in  Holy 

persuaded 

that  it  would    Orders;    all   that    time   I    had    labored 

be  better  to  .   .  i      i      i 

preach  ex-  honestly  at  sermon -writing,  and  had 
toTead'writ^  thought  much  on  the  subject;  but  my 
ten  sermons,  thought,  labor,  and  experience,  had  only 
brought  me  to  the  conclusion,  that  to  hear  written 
sermons  read  was  unprofitable  to  the  congregation, 
and  that  to  read  such  sermons  was  very  unsatisfactory 
to  the  Minister.  In  short,  I  had  come  to  regard 
reading  written  sermons  as  labor  almost  entirely 
thrown  away.  Sunday  after  Sunday  the  same 
thoughts  and  feelings  recurred  to  me.  As  I  pre- 
pared for  the  service,  while  I  wa-s  in  the  pulpit,  and 
as,  when  the  service  was  over,  I  returned  from  the 
church,  there  w^ould  come  into  my  mind  the  thought, 
What  wretched  work  these  sermons  are  !  I  was  sure 
the  congregation  took  but  little  interest  in  them;  and 
so  that  the  benefit  derived  from  them  could  only  be 
indirect,  and  very  small.  I  thought  that  they  might 
perhaps  keep  up  and  possibly  sometimes  add  a  little 
to  the  knovfledge  of  the  hearer;  but  that  this,  if 
done,  might  be  said  to  be  done  against  his  will, 
for  I  saw  clearly  enough  that  no  one  was  intent  on 
what  was  read.  My  thoughts  and  reflections  on  this 
subject  invariably  brought  me  to  the  same  conclusion, 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  i 

that  tlicre  was  but  one  remedy  for  this  unsatisfactory- 
way  of  going  on,  and  that  was  to  preach  to  the 
people,  and  not  to  read  to  them. 

I  became  so  convinced  of  the  unprofitableness  ^• 
of  reading  written  sermons,  that  I  ceased  to  write  any 
more,  and  for  the  six  following  years  the  time  I  had 
hitherto  given  to  sermon-writing  I  spent  otherwise. 
This  of  course  only  made  the  sermons  I  con- 
tinued to  read  still  more  unprofitable  to  the  congre- 
gation, and  still  more  irksome  to  myself,  for  we 
cannot  take  any  interest  in  what  we  think  slightingly 
of.  My  convictions,  however,  as  to  the  remedy  were 
growing  into  a  practical  form,  or  rather  my  con- 
victions as  to  the  certainty  of  the  remedy  were 
forcing  me  to  devise  some  method  for  applying  it.  I 
put  it  in  this  way  because  I  vras  well  aware  that  I  did 
not  possess  any  of  that  readiness  either  of  thought  or 
of  language  which  are  necessary  for  extemporary 
speaking,  and  that  my  somewhat  studious  life  had 
aggravated  my  natural  deficiencies  in  these  respects. 
I  was  what  is  called  a  nervous  man;  and  having  now 
reached  my  thirty-eighth  year  without  ever  having 
addressed  to  any  audience  half-a-dozen  words  except 
what  was  down  in  writing  before  me,  the  difficulties 
of  carrying  out  what  I  savf  to  be  right  had  appeared 
to  me  quite  insuperable.  Still  I  had  gone  on  arguing 
with  myself — "  It  is  the  right  thing  to  do,  and  there- 
fore it  ought  to  be  attempted  at  all  hazards  and  in- 


8  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHIXG. 

conveniences.  No  matter  how  disagreeable  it  may  be, 
no  matter  wliat  the  amount  of  labor  it  may  entail 
upon  me,  as  it  is  the  right  thing  to  do,  I  must  do  it." 
I  recall  these  difficulties  that  lay  in  my  own  path  that 
any  one  of  my  brethren  who  may  be  supposing  that 
insuperable  difficulties  are  lying  in  his  path,  may  be 
encouraged  to  think,  that  if  he  will  honestly  and  per- 
severingly  endeavor  to  overcome  them,  he  will  in  the 
end  succeed.  I  believe  that  very  few  will  have 
greater  difficulties  to  contend  with  than  the  writer  of 
these  pages  had.  If  I  had  any  advantage  at  all,  it 
was  that  the  practice  I  had  had  in  writing  would,  to 
a  great  extent,  save  me  from  glaring  inaccuracies  of 
expression,  and  to  some  extent  also  from  bad  logic. 
But  these  are  advantages  which  are  not  to  be  gained 
exclusively  by  the  practice  of  writing;  many  who 
have  written  much,  express  themselves  badly  and  are 
bad  reasoners;  and  many  who  have  never  written 
any  thing,  express  themselves  correctly  and  reason 
well. 

7.  At  the  beginning,  then,  of  the  year  1854,  after 
fourteen  years'  experience  of  the  failure  of  the 
method  of  reading  written  discourses,  I  resolved  that, 
cost  what  it  might,  I  would  give  the  remedy  a  fair 
trial,  and  that  the  trial  should  be  this, — that  for  the 
next  ten  years  I  would  not  read  a  sermon ;  and  that 
I  would  not  do  this  in  a  partial  manner  from  which 
little  could  be- inferred,  but  that  I  would  do  it  com- 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  9 

pletely  and  thoroughly,  for  that  during  that  time  I 
would  never  once  refer  to  any  abstract  or  notes  of 
any  kind.  I  determined  to  read  my  text  from  the 
Bible  itself  (immediately  afterwards  closing  the  book, 
that  I  might  not  be  tempted  to  make  use  of  memo- 
randa), and  then  to  preach  to  the  congregation  from 
what  I  had  upon  the  subject  in  the  stores  of  my  own 
mind.  This  would  be  giving  the  proposed  remedy  a 
real  and  eiiectual  trial.  It  is  now  twelve  years  since 
I  entered  on  this  course.  T  have  never  in  my  own 
church  deviated  from  it  for  a  single  service.  The 
labor  involved  in  carrying  it  out  has  been  very  con- 
siderable. It  was  so,  particularly  at  first.  But  I 
never  repented,  nor  do  I  now  repent,  of  having  made 
the  attempt;  and  my  congregation,  I  trust,  are  not 
dissatisfied  with  the  result. 

I   will    presently  state   the   method   I       8.  Reasons 

-■•  ''  that  weigh- 

adopted  for  carrying  out  my  resolution ;    eel  with  me. 

Sermons 

but  I  will  first  revert  to  some  of  the  con-    often  spoken 

.  -1  .  ^  •   ^  1  M        X  T-    •  disparaging- 

siderations  which,  while  I  was  being  i^^f^  Not  so 
brought  to  that  resolution,  were  ever  re-  tinds^of'pub- 
curring  to  my  mind,  and  which  indeed  I  ^^^  speaking. 
may  say  brought  me  to  it.  I  recollect  frequently 
saying  to  myself,  Sermons,  we  hear  on  all  sides,  have 
very  little  effect;  that  portion  of  our  current  litera- 
ture which  deals  with  what  is  passing  day  by  day 
amongst  us,  is  ever  speaking  of  sermons  in  a  tone  of 
disparagement,  as  dull  and  uninteresting  beyond  any 


10  EXTEMPORAEY   PREACHING. 

thing  else  that  we  are  expected  to  listen  to;  and  this 
is  only  the  echo  of  what  we  hear  in  society,  and  par- 
ticularly in  that  portion  of  society  which  is  most  cul- 
tivated and  intellectual.  Yet  every  body  knows  how 
fond  Englishmen  are  of  listening  to  public  speaking. 
Our  public  meetings,  public  dinners,  addresses,  lec- 
tures, and  other  things  of  the  kind  "in  numbers, 
numberless,"  are  very  much  the  result  merely  of  the 
desire  to  obtain  an  opportunity  for  hearing  some  one 
who  is  known  to  be  able  to  speak  in  public.  Even 
though,  as  a  speaker,  he  may  be  below  mediocrity, 
still  the  general  feeling  is,  that  it  is  better  to  have 
even  bad  speaking  than  none  at  all.  The  mind,  just 
like  the  body,  craves  for  food;  and  no  kind  of  mental 
food  appears  to  give  such  general  satisfaction  as  that 
which  is  supplied  by  public  speaking. 
9.  Fond-  This  is  often  regarded  by  ourselves  as 

ness  for 

hearing  something  peculiar    to  Englishmen,  as  a 

Fngacharac-  phenomenon  of  English  life.  But  no 
Europea^'n  such  thing.  If  we  go  back  to  the  earliest 
civilization,  j.gcord  of  European  civilization,  we  shall 
find  that  the  Greeks  before  Troy  were  just  as  fond  of 
listening  to  speeches  as  the  Englishman  of  the  pre- 
sent day.  They  could  do  nothing  without  public 
speaking.  The  chiefs  never  failed  in  this  matter. 
They  were,  upon  every  occasion  that  admitted  of  it, 
ready  to  speak.  Tacitus  says  the  same  of  our  Ger- 
man ancestors.      So  was  it  at  the  dawnir^gs  of  Euro- 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  11 

pean  civilization,  and  so  has  it  been  throughout. 
Indeed,  this  is  just  one  of  the  facts  which  distin- 
guish the  European  from  the  Asiatic  mind,  and  the 
European  from  the  Asiatic  civilization.  There  is  a 
longing  in  our  minds  to  hear  the  very  words,  spoken 
by  himself,  of  the  man  who  is  supposed  to  be  able  to 
guide  and  to  teach.  We  wish  to  see  his  mind  work- 
ing in  our  presence;  to  see  his  thoughts  forming 
themselves  before  our  eyes,  and  to  hear  them  enun- 
ciated in  the  very  words  in  which  the  thinker  clothes 
them,  vivified  by  the  tones  which  no  one  but  himself 
can  impart  to  them.  It  would  seem,  in  truth,  that 
as  there  is  nothing  higher  in  this  world  than  mind 
and  heart, — indeed,  as  we  are  unable  to  form  a  con- 
ception of  any  thing  higher,  so  there  cannot  be  any 
thing  more  interesting  to.  us  than  to  witness  this 
process. 

Under  our  form  of  civilization, — and  1^-  ^'*''^y  so. 
its  difference  from  and  superiority  to  the  civilization 
of  other  races  is  the  result  of  nothing  but  our  moral 
and  intellectual  difference  from  and  superiority  to 
them, — the  rule  has  ever  been,  that  men  should  con- 
struct their  opinions  for  themselves,  their  opinions 
being  the  guides  of  their  actions  and  of  their  lives. 
No  other  system  has  ever  obtained  amongst  us.  It 
follovv^s  from  this,  that  the  mass  of  mankind,  who 
cannot  be  great  readers  or  profound  thinkers,  will 
always  be  desirous  of  hearing  what  public  speakers 


12  EXTEMPOIIARY   PREACHING. 

have  to  say.  They  will  entertain  the  hope  of  being 
profited  and  instructed ;  at  all  events,  they  expect  to 
derive  from  listening  that  kind  of  pleasure  for  which 
the  mind  has  an  insatiable  appetite, — the  pleasure 
which  arises  from  having  the  faculties  of  memory, 
imagination,  and  judgment  awakened  and  called  into 
exercise  in  an  easy  and  natural  way,  without  any 
direct  effort  of  our  own. 
11.  The  ;n'ow  it  used  to  appear  to  me,  that  no 

advantages 

the  preacher    one  could  be  in  a  better  position  for  min- 

T30SSGSSCS  for 

public  istering  to  this  generally  felt  want  than  a 

spea  ing.  Clergyman.  No  one  has  so  wide,  so  in- 
teresting, so  human  a  range  of  subjects  to  speak 
upon.  Man's  nature ;  man's  relation  to  the  unseen 
world;  his  duty  here,  his  destiny  hereafter;  what 
will  promote,  and  what  will  mar  his  happiness ;  what 
is  the  interpretation  of  the  phenomena  of  human 
life — the  subjects  indeed  are  inexhaustible,  for  he  has 
to  instruct  his  hearers  in  that  highest,  that  divine 
philosophy,  which,  if  it  be  possible,  embraces  and 
harmonizes  into  an  intelligible  and  well-compacted 
whole,  every  thing  which  man  knows,  and  in  which  he 
is  concerned.  He  has  to  speak  to  men  about  all  that 
they  feel,  and  want,  and  desire;  all  that  they  hope 
and  fear;  and  all  that  they  know.  The  man  who 
speaks  on  political,  or  social,  or  historical,  or  scienti- 
fic subjects  only,  deals  with  some  one  part  of  that 
wide  field,  the  whole  of  which  is    spread  out  before 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  13 

the  preacher  if  he  be  properly  prepared  for  his  work ; 

for  whatever  bears  on  the  formation  of  our  feelings, 

or   of  our   opinions,  or    can   through   these   or  other 

means  be  made  influential  on  human  conduct,  belongs 

to  the  domain  of  the  preacher. 

HoAV  much  influence,   then,   might  the       12.  Good 

preachers 

Church  secure  in  this  most  legitimate  of   would  be  of 

inucli   SGi*~ 

all  ways  (because  it  would  be  acquired  by  vice  to  the 
supplying  the  great  moral  wants  of  its 
people,  that  is,  by  doing  its  duty  to  them),  if  it  had 
"a  company  of  preachers"  able  to  preach  ^  intelli- 
gently and  persuasively  on  these  subjects!  And  I 
think  that  no  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  history 
of  the  past  and  the  wants  of  the  present  day  will 
suppose  that  the  Church  can  recover  the  ground  it 
has  lost,  so  readily  and  efi'ectually  in  any  other  way  as 
in  this.  Other  methods  of  proceeding  may  go  some 
way  towards  reaching,  or  may  assist  in  reaching,  but 
cannot  of  themselves  reach,  the  end  in  view.  The 
Church,  whatever  else  it  may  have  to  do,  will  also 
have  to  supply  itself  with  this  army  of  preachers  able 
to  handle  properly  their  wide  and  sacred  subject. 

Consider  the  history   of  the  Christian       13.  Shown 

by  the  his- 
Church.     It  was  in  this  way  that  it  was    tory  of  the 

established  in   the  world.     Paul  and  his 

fellow-Apostles  came  and  spoke  to  men  on  those  sub- 

1  Here,  and  throughout  these  pages  I  use  the  term  "  preaching," 
in  contradistinction  to  reading  written  sermons. 
•7 


14  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

jects  upon  wliicli  men  were  craving  for  light.  Those 
were  times  when  the  old  beliefs  having  become  utterly 
discredited,  and  every  nation  of  the  civilized  world 
having  been  thrown  into  the  crucible  of  the  Roman 
empire,  to  be  disintegrated,  melted  down,  and  recast, 
there  was,  in  a  degree  and  a  sense  unknown  before  in 
the  world,  a  mental  "distress  of  nations,  with  per- 
plexity." AVhat  Paul  had  to  say  was  directly  ad- 
dressed to  this  state  of  things-.  It  met  "  the  present 
distress."  He  spoke  to  them  of  One  who  was  capable 
of  becoming  to  them  "the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the 
Life."  He  spoke  to  them,  and  they  listened  gladly 
to  the  man  who  spoke  to  them  on  the  subject  on  which 
they  were  so  anxiously  groping  for  light :  and  the 
work  so  commenced  was  half  accomplished. 
14.  And  so  throughout  the  whole  subsequent  his- 
tory of  the  Church.  Whenever  a  revival  or  an 
advance  has  been  effected,  it  has  been  effected  by 
preaching,  by  speaking,  by  mind  addressing  mind 
through  the  medium  of  spoken  words,  on  subjects 
about  which  men's  minds  were  at  the  time  greatly 
stirred.  In  none  of  these  instances  could  the  effect 
have  been  produced  by  reading  written  discourses. 
Imagine  the  preachers  of  the  Crusades,  or  the  Domi- 
nicans and  Franciscans,  who  by  their  fervid  preaching 
restored  the  then  waning  influence  of  the  Papacy, 
reading  written  discourses.  The  incongruity  of  the 
idea  is  so  great  as  to  present  a  ludicrous  image  to  the 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  15 

mind.  Their  object  was  to  move,  to  sway  minds,  to 
persuade.  Who  then,  but  can  see  that  for  them  to 
have  read  what  they  wished  to  say,  would  have  been 
futile  and  nugatory?  It  would  have  been  to  have 
thrown  away  their  labor,  and  to  have  made  them- 
selves ridiculous.  We  cannot  suppose  that  any  thing 
else  would  have  resulted  from  their  adoption  of  the 
practice  of  reading.  But  to  go  on  with  this  historical 
view  of  our  subject.  Could  reading  written  dis- 
courses have  brought  about  the  Reformation  ?  Or  we 
may  take  a  lesson  from  the  practice  of  our  opponents. 
The  teachers  of  heresy  have  always  been  preachers, 
and  not  readers.  Had  they  been  readers,  the  Church 
would  never  at  any  time  have  had  cause  to  fear  their 
efforts.  In  that  case  their  heresies  could  hardly  have 
spread  beyond  their  own  minds.  It  is  the  eye,  the 
tone,  the  living  thought  of  the  speaker,  that  moves 
and  persuades  the  hearer.  These  will  even  give 
power  to  error  for  a  time ;  and  for  a  time,  without 
their  aid,  truth  itself  is  placed  at  a  mighty  disadvan- 
ta2;e. 

Had  Wesley  and  Whitefield  not  been  preach-  15. 
ers,  they  would  have  effected  nothing.  I  know  they 
prepared  their  sermons  beforehand  in  writing,  just 
as  Robertson  in  our  own  day  did,  and  as  so  many 
other  great  preachers,  as  distinguished  from  mere 
talkers,  did  before  them;  and  this  is  what  I  intend  to 
recommend  to  my  readers ;  and  I  trust  that  I  shall  be 


16  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

able  to  persuade  them  that  it  is  what  always  ought  to 
be  done  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  by  the  preacher  of 
the  Word  of  God. 

16.  But  I  am  understating  the  fact.  Not  only  was 
the  first  establishment  of  our  holy  religion  effected 
by  the  instrumentality  of  extemporary  preaching, 
as  were  also  its  subsequent  recoveries  and  revi- 
vals, and  every  stirring  application  of  it  to  the  cir- 
cumstances ^f  the  times;  but,  furthermore,  we  find 
all  Churches  and  communities  of  Christians  so  well 
aware  of  the  superiority  of  spoken  addresses  to  dis- 
courses that  are  li^ad,  that  the  practice  has,  I  believe, 
been  in  all  times  and  in  all  places  to  preach  and  not 
to  read,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  Church  of 
England.  The  oldest  Churches  retain  it,  and  the 
newest  adopt  it.  With  us  alone  the  rule  obtains,  to 
read  the  written  discourse.  So  singular  a  concord- 
ance, amounting  almost  to  complete  unanimity,  under 
so  great  a  variety  of  circumstances,  does  of  itself  go 
far  towards  demonstrating  the  propriety  and  wisdom 
of  the  practice. 
17.  The  But  what  I  now  wish  to  direct  the  at- 

Minister  of  ^ 

the  Word         tention  of  my  readers  to,  is  the  considera- 

cannot  be,  .  i  •   i  •        p 

what  he  tion    01  the  reasons  which   exist  lor  our 

a"feacher, '  abandoning    our    present    method.       The 

abiefospeak  Minister  of  the  Word,  as  the  title  implies, 

in  public.  |g  ^^  Teacher — one  who  ministers,  teaches 

the  Word.  But  a  teacher  is  one  who  is  able  to  teach. 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  17 

Sir  William  Hamilton  makes  the  ability  'o  teach,  the 
one  exclusive  test  of  the  possession  of  knowledge.  It 
is  plain,  that  reading  a  discourse  on  any  subject  is 
not  teaching  that  subject.  Teaching  implies,  first, 
the  possession  of  knowledge,  and  then  the  power  ot 
coiweying  it,  according  to  the  circumstances  and  re- 
quirements of  the  moment,  to  other  minds.  A  man 
who  can  do  this,  demonstrates  that  he  knows  his  sub- 
ject; and  he  is  a  teacher.  The  man  who  reads,  does, 
strictly  speaking,  only  demonstrate  his  ability  to  read 
what  is  before  him.  What  he  reads  may  be  his  own 
digested  knowledge,  or  it  may  be  an  undigested  com- 
position, or  it  may  be  a  mere  copy  of  another  man's 
work.  But  even  in  those  cases  where  the  minister 
reads  what  is  strictly  his  own,  he  is  only  reading,  not 
teaching.  What  a  man  reads,  he  wrote  when  he  was 
alone  in  his  study.  The  mere  fact  that,  originally,  it 
was  written,  and  not  spoken,  implies  a  different 
structure  of  sentences,  and  a  different  sequence  of 
thought.  What  is  spoken  is  not  always  adapted  for 
reading,  and  what  is  written  is  still  more  seldom 
adapted  for  speaking.  The  circumstances  which  give 
its  character  to  the  composition  in  each  case,  are 
widely  different.  In  one  case  it  is  the  expression  of 
the  thought  of  a  solitary  thinker,  who  is  under  no 
strong  present  impulse  to  consider  any  one  but  him- 
self, or  any  thing  but  what  is  intelligible  to  his  own 
mind.     What  is  said  in  the  other  case  is  the  result  of 


18  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

a  highly  conscious  feeling  that  other  minds  are  at  the 
moment  in  contact  with  your  own  mind.  You  feel 
that  they  are  following  you;  you  feel  their  wants  at 
the  moment  in  the  matter  before  you.  The  congre- 
gation do  in  fact,  in  a  large  degree,  shape  your  course, 
and  give  its  color  to  your  expression,  and  its  lone 
to  your  language.  You  know  that  they  are  thinking 
with  you ;  and  this  affects  your  thought  and  the  form 
it  outwardly  assumes.  This  is  one  of  the  necessities 
of  teaching.  What  is  written  in  solitude  can  hardly 
ever  be  in  harmony  with  the  thoughts  of  the  congre- 
gation. It  is  the  transcript  of,  probably,  the  mid- 
night thoughts  of  the  writer.  Some  portions  of  it 
may  possibly  have  been  adapted  from  the  works  of 
others,  some  may  have  been  extorted  from  a  weary  or 
unwilling  brain;  and  when  it  is  read  there  is  little  or 
no  power  of  adjusting  it  to  the  requirements  of  the 
moment. 
18.  This  I  am  prepared  for  the  remark  that  the 

his  specia- 
lity; for  Minister  of  the  Word  is  something  more 
gcod  moral  ,  _.  ,  x    i  .    ^  ,^ 

character  is  than  a  Preacher.  1  do  not  deny  the  as- 
theTaity  as  sertion,  but  I  deny  what  is  implied  by  it. 
\veiiasofthe  j  reply, — Whatever  else  he  may  be,  he  is 
at  all  events,  because  he  is  a  Minister  of 
the  Word,  a  Preacher ;  and  when  he  enters  the  pulpit, 
it  is  then  his  exclusive  and  his  high  duty  to  minister 
the  Word,  to  teach,  to  preach.  To  read,  although 
what  he  reads  may  be  his  own  composition,  is  but  an 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  19 

inadequate  and  sorry  way  of  performing  this  high 
duty.  He  will  be  wronging  himself  and  his  parish- 
ioners if  he  supposes  that  good  moral  character  will 
be  sufficient  for  securing  their  respect  and  regard ;  for 
of  him  is  required  furthermore  that  he  should  be  able 
to  do  what  he  has  professed  most  solemnly  to  devote 
his  life  to  doing,  that  is,  that  he  should  be  able  to 
teach.  And  till  he  has  demonstrated  beyond  all 
cavil  and  question  his  possession  of  this  power,  by  the 
constant  exercise  of  it  in  the  pulpit  in  the  face  of  the 
congregation  (the  only  way  in  which  he  can  demon- 
strate it),  they  can  have  no  certainty  on  the  subject. 
Good  moral  character,  we  must  remember,  is  required  of 
a  layman,  as  well  as  of  a  Clergyman.  The  distinctive 
duty  of  the  latter  is  teaching,  ministering  the  Word 
in  the  most  effective  way  he  can  to  the  flock  com- 
mitted to  his  charge.  This  duty  occupies  a  primary 
place  in  the  code  of  clerical  morality,  just  in  the  sense 
in  which  courage  does  in  the  case  of  one  who  has  un- 
dertaken the  profession  of  arms.  And  that  a  Clergy- 
man should  never  have  given  himself  the  trouble  to 
acquire  the  power  of  speaking  and  teaching,  so  in- 
dispensable for  the  proper  discharge  of  his  sacred 
office,  must  affect  the  estimate  which  men  form  of  his 
character.  I  ask  my  clerical  brethren  to  regard  this 
matter  from  the  layman's  point  of  view,  and  then 
decide  what  can  fairly  be  required  of  them.  In  them 
this  neglect  is  a  moral  delinquency.     The  congrega- 


20  EXTEJMPORARY   PREACHING. 

tion  of  the  Minister  of  the  Word  -who  reads  written 
sermons  will  perhaps  treat  him  as  if  thej  had  nothing 
to  complain  of.  But  congregations  have  hitherto 
shown  themselves  very  good-natured  and  patient  in 
respect  of  sermons,  I  do  not  think  so  much  from  in- 
difference, as  from  a  feeling  of  utter  powerlessness  to 
do  any  thing  to  amend  what  is  amiss  in  the  matter. 
But  they  may  not  always  he  so  acquiescent.  In  their 
hearts  they  know  that  they  have  a  right  to  complain ; 
and  already  allow  the  mouth  to  proclaim  what  the 
heart  tells  them.  Any  Clergyman  can  judge  from  his 
own  observation  how  much  more  respect  is  felt  by  his 
parishioners  for  one  who,  Sunday  after  Sunday, 
teaches  the  Word  from  the  fulness  of  his  own  mind, 
than  for  one  who  reads  to  them,  it  is  impossible  for 
them  to  know,  whose  thoughts.  It  is  in  human  nature 
to  respect  those  who  stand  up  before  us  with  un- 
doubted ability  to  teach  us.  There  is  no  escaping 
from  this  feeling.  If  we  cannot  say  of  all  men  that 
they  have  more  or  less  of  an  instinctive  desire  for 
knowledge  and  improvement,  at  all  events,  we  cannot 
err  in  taking  as  much  for  granted  of  the  members  of  a 
Christian  congregation,  because  it  is  one  of  the  motives 
which  have  brought  them  together  to  hear  the  Word. 
But  whether  this  be  so  or  not,  it  is  impossible  to  refrain 
from  respecting  one  who  is  manifestly  our  intellectual 
superior.  Why,  we  even  feel  a  kind  of  respect  for  one 
who    is  superior  to  us  merely  in  physical  qualities. 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  21 

And  it  is  not  in  the  pulpit  only  that       l^-  Its 

^     ^  *'  utility  to  the 

this  power  is  indispensable  for  the  proper  Clergy  at 
discharge  of  the  duties  -which  devolve  on  other 
a  Clergyman.  Without  it,  for  instance,  and^pubiic 
in  how  helpless  a  position  will  he  fre-  J^^eetmgs. 
quently  find  himself  Avhen  occupying  the  chair  at 
vestry  and  other  parochial  meetings.  He  will,  on 
these  occasions,  be  distressed  and  disturbed  by  the  un- 
comfortable feelings  that  will  arise  from  his  knowing 
both  that  he  is  appearing  in  a  very  unfavorable  light 
before  those  whose  natural,  or  at  all  events,  whose 
oflScial  leader  he  is;  and,  worse  than  this,  that  the 
interests  also  of  his  parishioners,  and  so  to  some 
degree  of  the  Church  itself,  are  suffering  through  his 
inability  to  acquit  himself  in  a  manner  which  all  have 
a  right  to  expect  of  him.  How  often  does  it  happen 
that  a  clerical  chairman  returns  home  from  some 
parochial  meeting  with  his  temper  rufHed  in  conse- 
quence of  his  inability  to  address  a  few  remarks  to  his 
neighbors  in  an  efi'ective  manner;  and  with  a  galling 
sense  of  inferiority  to  opponents  who  in  other  intel- 
lectual qualifications  are  not  his  superiors;  and  with 
a  painful  consciousness  that  he  has  been  wanting  to 
the  duties  of  his  office.  And  all  this  results  from 
nothing  but  the  practice  of  reading  written  sermons; 
nothing  else  is  in  fault,  for  in  the  majority  of  cases 
of  this  kind  the  Clergyman  is  the  most  highly-edu- 
cated person  present,  and  in  many  cases  the  only  one. 


22  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

But  this  advantage  is  neutralized  bj  his  having  neg- 
lected to   acquire  the  power  of  speaking  in   public, 
which  it  was  his  duty  to  have  done,  and  for  doing 
which  he  has  more  opportunities  than  other  people. 
20.  Useful       Let  me  point  out  another  very  serviceable 

also  as  it 

enables  use  wliich  may  be  made  of  this  power, — 

them  to  ,  p      .    .  •         1  1  » 

give  lee-  that  01  giving  occasional  lectures  to  one  s 

parishioners.  I  know  that  matters  of  this 
kind  will  appear  to  some  hardly  worth  mentioning; 
but  any  means  by  which  a  Clergyman  can  gain  influ- 
ence legitimately,  ceases  to  be  unimportant  to  him; 
and  the  influence  to  be  gained  and  the  good  to  be  done  in 
this  way  will  be  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  parish. 
Such  lectures  will  show  to  one's  parishioners  both  that 
this  Minister  does  not  confine  his  labors  on  their  behalf 
to  what  can  strictly  be  required  of  him,  and  that  his 
knowledge  also  extends  beyond  the  limits  that  are 
usually  set  to  theological  studies.  That  theological 
studies  should  be  thus  limited  is  always  to  be  regret- 
ted; but  more  so  at  the  present  day  than  perhaps  at 
any  previous  epoch,  because  many  departments  of 
knowledge,  bearing  more  or  less  directly  on  Biblical 
interpretation  and  theology,  have  of  late  years  made 
great  advances,  some  of  them  being  almost  new 
sciences ;  and  the  results  of  these  recent  advances  in 
various  parts  of  the  field  of  knowledge  have  been  very 
widely,  I  may  say  almost  generally  disseminated. 
Many  minds,  even  in  classes  which  a  few  years  back 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  23 

had  never  been  reached  by  such  ideas,  have  thought  of 
their  connection  with  Theology  and  Biblical  interpre- 
.tation.  These  are  facts,  they  are  important  facts,  and 
we  cannot  afford  to  ignore  them.  The  Clergy  cer- 
tainly ought  to  pay  some  attention  to  them.  And  if, 
more  particularly  in  town  parishes,  the  Minister 
should  be  able  by  occasional  addresses  to  guide  on 
some  of  these  subjects  the  minds  of  his  parishioners, 
the  benefit  he  will  do  them  will  be  great,  and  the  sense 
of  it  will  be  so  much  added  to  the  strength  of  his  own 
position.  And  even  in  cases,  as  must  frequently 
happen,  where  others  may  not  be  disposed  to  adopt 
his  views,  still  their  estimate  of  him  will  be  raised  by 
finding  that  he  is  not  unacquainted  Avith  questions  of 
so  much  interest  and  importance,  and  that  he  has 
formed  his  own  opinions  upon  them,  and  is  able  in 
public  to  set  those  opinions  before  them. 

The  kind  of  knowledge  I  am  speaking       21.  Of 

more  use  to 
of  here  is  required  in  an  especial  manner    our  Clergy 

of  the  Clergy   of  the  National   Church,    pnest  of 

It  is  obvious  that  it  is  not  required  to  the    o/Rome^ 

same  extent  of  the  Priests  of  the  Church    ?^  ^^ff^}^^~ 

mg  Mmis- 

of  Rome  or  of  the  Ministers  of  Dissenting  ters. 
congregations.  The  Priest  of  the  Church  of  Rome  is 
the  minister  of  a  system  which  ignores  all  the  advances 
of  knowledge.  The  old  stock  instances  exhibit  both 
the  fact,  and  the  reason  why  it  is  so.  It  appeared  to 
the  inquisitors  who  imprisoned  Galileo  that  it  was  be- 


24  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

side  the  question  to  argue  from  physical  facts  that  the 
earth  moved.  In  the  same  way  the  doctors  of  Sala- 
manca treated  the  reasoning  of  Columbus  to  show  that 
the  earth  was  round.  To  their  minds  these  questions 
were  to  be  settled  by  theological,  not  by  physical 
considerations.  With  the  latter,  the  Priest  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  has  nothing  to  do.  He  is  not  con- 
cerned to  know  any  thing  of  their  bearings  on  theo- 
logical questions.  He  and  the  faithful  laity  of  his 
Church  must  walk  without  inquiry  and  undeviatingly 
along  a  path  which  has  been  prescribed  for  them  by 
infallible  but  far  from  omniscient  authority.  And  this 
in  some  degree  accounts  for  the  gulf  which  is  ever  be- 
coming more  and  more  impassable  between  the  faith 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  and  the  knowledge  of  its  more 
intelligent  members.  On  the  other  hand,  the  minister 
of  the  Dissenting  congregation  must,  but  for  a  dif- 
ferent reason,  act  in  much  the  same  way.  The  bulk  of 
his  people,  that  is  those  for  whose  spiritual  and  intel- 
lectual wants  he  must  mainly  provide,  belong  to  the 
lower  classes  and  the  lower  stratum  of  the  middle  class. 
Of  course  many  are  ever  emerging  from  these  classes 
and  carrying  their  Dissent  with  them  to  a  higher  and 
more  educated  sphere  of  Society;  but  at  present  the 
exceptions,  I  suppose,  are  seldom  sufficient,  except  in 
large  towns,  to  affect  the  Minister's  duty  in  this 
respect.  The  bulk  of  his  congregation  being  unedu- 
cated, or  but  slightly  educated,  can  have  scarcely  any 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  25 

acquaintance  with,  or  be  but  very  slightly  interested 
in,  those  accessions  to  our  stock  of  knowledge  which 
are  the  rewards  of  modern  and,  in  many  particulars, 
very  recent  investigations.  In  making  these  remarks, 
it  must,  I  think,  be  sufficiently  obvious  that  my  only 
wish  is  to  make  it  clear  that  the  Clergy  of  the  Church 
of  England  are  in  a  position  where  it  is  required  of 
them  to  come  forward  as  leaders  of  thought.  This 
arises  from  two  facts  :  first,  that  our  Church  embraces 
within  her  pale  far  the  larger  portion  of  the  highly- 
educated  classes,  that  is,  the  classes  that  are  acquainted 
with  and  take  an  interest  in  the  questions  I  have  been 
referring  to — the  questions  that  arise  out  of  our  recent 
acquisitions  in  the  field  of  knowledge;  and  then,  that 
she  does  not  put  herself  at  all  in  hostility  to  inquiry, 
criticism,  and  science.  The  Clergy,  therefore,  when 
they  pay  some  attention  to  these  subjects,  are  not  to 
be  considered  as  going  out  of  their  way,  and  giving  up 
time  to  matters  in  which  they  are  not  concerned ;  nay, 
rather  in  so  doing  they  are  discharging  duties  they  owe 
to  themselves,  to  their  parishioners,  and  even  to  that 
which  is  their  special  study.  And  they  will  be  doing 
good  by  giving  occasional  lectures  upon  these  subjects. 
In  speaking  of  the  conclusion  it  is  the       22.  We 

should  ac- 

object  of  these  pages  to  press  upon  others,    quire  this 

T      .Ti  .  .  /»  .  ,  .  power  out  of 

I  Will  not  omit  mention  of  a  consideration  considera- 

which  had  some  weight  with  myself  at  the  wishes  of 

time;   it  was,  that  my  parishioners   had  °"j[g^s^^^^^' 
3 


26  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

had  no  voice  in  making  me  their  Minister;  and  that  if 
any  influential  part  in  the  selection  had  been  allowed 
to  thenij  in  all  probability  I  should  not  have  been  the 
person  chosen ;  for  I  could  not  suppose  that  they 
would  have  preferred  of  their  own  free  choice  a  Min- 
ister who  was  unable  to  minister  to  them  the  Word, 
as  occasion  required,  from  his  own  mind.  It  is  just 
possible,  I  thought,  that  as  they  have  been  accustomed 
all  their  lives  to  hear  sermons  read,  some  of  them  may 
have  given  little  or  no  thought  to  what  is  the  best,  or 
rather  what  is  the  right  method  of  preaching.  Or 
perhaps,  the  wrong  method  having  been  so  long  ac- 
ccepted  in  the  Church  of  England,  there  might  have 
been  a  difficulty,  whatever  might  have  been  the  pa- 
rishioners' opinion  and  wishes,  in  procuring  for  a  small 
rural  parish  a  minister  who  would  be  disposed  and  able, 
Sunday  after  Sunday,  to  preach  extemporarily  two 
carefully-prepared  sermons.  But  these,  I  argued  with 
myself,  are  only  additional  reasons  for  my  doing 
what  I  am  convinced  is  right  in  this  matter.  I  ought 
to  give  my  parishioners  what  I  believe  they  would  on 
sufficient  grounds  prefer.  And  even  if,  for  the  reasons 
just  mentioned,  they  have  not  any  clear  and  decided 
opinions  on  the  subject  as  yet,  still  I  ought  not  to  take 
advantage  of  this:  I  ought  to  do  just  the  contrary.  I 
should  endeavor  to  show  them  what  is  right  and  best. 
And,  to  take  a  wider  view  than  that  which  one's  own 
parish  supplies,  here  is  a  practice  which  I  believe  is  a 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  27 

cause  of  great  and  increasing  weakness  to  tlio  Church. 
It  ought  to  be  discontinued  as  soon  as  possible.  The 
only  way  of  bringing  this  about  is  for  some  one  here 
and  some  one  there,  as  conviction  comes  home  to  each, 
to  endeavor  to  set  the  matter  right  in  his  own  pulpit. 
Those  who  are  convinced  must  begin  with  themselves. 
It  is  from  those  who  begin  in  this  way  that  the  prac- 
tice, if  it  be  right,  will  spread  to  others.  Already  in 
every  neighborhood  one  or  two  are  to  be  found  who 
have  made  a  beginning.  The  effect  of  their  preaching, 
although  iheir  sermons  may  not  be  in  themselves  all 
that  they  ought  to  be,  proves  that  they  are  right.  I 
will  begin  too.  I  will  make  the  attempt  honestly,  and 
give  the  practice  a  fair  trial.  One's  parishioners  have 
a  right  to  expect  as  much  as  this  from  their  Minister. 
He  ought  also  to  undertake  it  for  the  Church's  sake. 
Of  course  there  will  be  some  who  will      23.  Not  an 

answer,  that 

deny   that    considerations    of    this    kind    the  Church 

does  not 

possess   any  weight;    because,  they   will    formally 
say,  the  fact  is,  that  in  the  Church  of    oflhe^ 
England  the  parishioners  very  rarely  have    ^^^^^7- 
any  voice  allowed  them  in  the  election  of  a  Minister; 
and  so  we  may  legitimately  infer  that  no  attention 
need  be  paid  to  what  they  might  have  wished  for  in 
him  under  different  circumstances.      And   again  be- 
cause, as  they  will  go  on  to  argue,  it  is  wrong  for  a 
Minister  to  suppose  that  he  can  be  wiser  than  the 
practice   and  than  the  authorities  of  his  Church  in 


28  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

any  matter.  If,  then,  the  Church  neither  condemns 
written  sermons,  nor  requires  extemporary  preaching, 
it  is  presumptuous  in  him  to  have  opinions  of  his  own 
on  the  subject,  and  still  more  so  for  him  to  act  upon 
them.  With  these  persons  I  cannot  agree.  A  Cler- 
gyman ought  to  do  what  his  parishioners  ought  to  wish 
him  to  do,  and  ought  to  be  what  they  ought  to  wish 
him  to  be.  And  though,  as  a  general  rule,  it  is  proper 
that  he  should  not  consider  himself  wiser  than  the 
practice  or  than  the  authorities  of  his  Church,  still 
there  are  exceptions  to  all  general  rules,  cases  to  which 
they  do  not  apply,  and  just  so  it  is  with  the  question 
before  us.  True,  the  Church  does  not  require  us 
either  to  adopt  extemporary  preaching  or  to  read 
written  sermons,  but  leaves  the  choice  to  our  own  dis- 
cretion, the  practice  of  the  universal  Church,  with  the 
single  exception  of  our  branch  of  it,  being  in  favor  of 
the  former  of  the  two  methods.  To  reply  that  one  is 
unwilling  to  constitute  oneself  a  judge  in  the  matter 
because  the  existing  practice  is  to  read  written  ser- 
mons, and  the  existing  authorities  of  the  Church  are 
satisfied  with  its  being  so,  is,  I  think,  to  misapprehend 
the  question.  The  very  point  to  be  considered  is. 
Are  there  not  reasons,  both  of  a  general  kind,  appli- 
cable to  all  times  and  places,  and  of  a  special  kind 
arising  out  of  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
Church's  work  has  at  this  day  to  be  done,  which  seem 
to  make  it  very  desirable  that  our  practice  in  this 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  29 

matter  should  be  changed?  Doubtless  it  would  be 
impossible  to  exact  extemporary  preaching  from  all 
existing  Incumbents;  by  the  time,  however,  that 
another  generation  had  arisen  in  the  Church,  difficul- 
ties which  now  appear  very  great  would  have  melted 
away,  especially  should  public  opinion  become  de- 
cidedly and  openly  favorable  to  the  practice. 

"We   are   too  much   disposed   to    think       24.  Why 

wc  must 

that   nothing  more   can  be   said   on   any    consider  the 

.  ,  .      ,         wants  and 

subject  than  what  we  hear  said  on  it  by    wishes  of 

.    .  .    ,  i.      n  .         the  lower 

our  own  set  in  society,  or,  at  ail  events,  classes. 
than  what  is  said  by  the  educated  classes. 
There  may  be  questions  which  it  is  allowable  for  us  to 
settle  for  ourselves  in  this  way.  This  question,  how- 
ever, about  Preaching  is  plainly  not  one  of  those 
that  can  be  so  settled.  It  is  not  an  uncommon 
opinion  among  the  educated  classes,  that  it  would  be 
better  if  there  were  no  sermons  at  all.  It  is  also  not 
an  uncommon  opinion  among  them  that  Extemporary 
Preaching  is  bad.  They  are  fastidious;  the  faults, 
therefore,  of  bad  Extemporary  Preaching  are  dis- 
tasteful to  them.  Besides  which,  it  is  often  accom- 
panied, as  it  ought  ahyays  to  be,  by  an  earnestness  of 
appeal  which,  again,  is  distasteful  to  many.  These 
opinions  are  openly  expressed  and  frequently  heard. 
But  those  who  hold  them  are  not  a  very  large  propor- 
tion even  of  their  own  class,  though  their  number 
appears  to  be  very  considerable  from  their  being  gen- 


30  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

erally  so  well  able  to  attract  attention  to  what  they 
saj.  Supposing,  however,  it  was  the  whole  of  the 
educated  classes  that  held  these  opinions,  even  that 
would  be  very  far  from  settling  the  question,  for  they 
are  not  in  the  majority  amongst  us ;  and  it  was  not 
from  them,  as  is  well  known,  that  Christianity  took 
its  rise.  The  knowledge  that  regenerates  and  saves, 
spread  not  from  the  upper  classes  to  the  lower,  but 
from  the  lower  to  the  upper.  Not  the  rich,  not  the 
noble,  not  the  learned,  not  the  powerful,  but  the  poor, 
the  weak,  the  despised  of  the  world,  were  the  first  to 
understand  and  receive  it ;  and  it  was  from  them  that 
it  ascended  to  the  summits  of  society.  They  of 
Caesar's  household  accepted  the  proffered  light,  three 
hundred  years  before  it  was  accepted  by  the  Caesar 
himself.  And  if  we  were  obliged  at  the  present  day 
to  make  our  choice  between  the  two  in  a  country  that 
had  relapsed  into  unbelief,  or  in  a  heathen  land  yet 
to  be  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Gospel,  he  who 
had  considered  what  would  most  surely  and  most 
quickly  conduce  to  the  desired  end,  would  prefer  the 
conversion  of  the  lower  to  that  of  the  higher  classes. 
The  latter  does  not  necessarily  involve  the  former; 
but  the  former,  if  time  be  allowed,  necessarily  involves 
the  latter.  The  constant  pressure  from  the  mass 
below  on  the  few  above,  is  far  more  telling  than  the 
pressure  of  the  few  above  on  the  mass  below.  Besides, 
the  upper  few  are  ever  dying  out,  and  ever  being  re- 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACIIIXG.  31 

placed  by  those  -wlio  emerge  from  the  ranks  below; 
and  "while  those  Avho  sink  from  the  upper  to  the  lower 
class  are  worthless,  those  who  rise  from  the  lower  to 
the  upper  are  of  the  very  best  material.  On  this 
question  we  must  not  take  the  opinions  of  a  rather 
talkative,  but  perhaps,  in  these  matters,  not  the  most 
influential  portion  of  the  upper  class,  for  more  than 
those  opinions  are  worth ;  and  if  we  find  that  the 
lower  class,  and  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  lower 
strata  of  the  middle  class  hold  stiffly,  opinions  of  an 
opposite  kind,  we  must  not  pass  by  those  opinions  as 
if  it  mattered  little  how  we  regarded  them. 

Now  the  fact  is,  that  these  classes  have  very  de-  ^5. 
cided  opinions  on  the  subject  of  Preaching;  opinions, 
too,  the  very  reverse  of  those  I  have  just  referred  to. 
They  like  Preaching.  It  is  their  chief  intellectual 
pleasure  and  excitement.  There  is  not  any  great 
variety  of  conversation  in  the  society  they  frequent. 
They  are  not  much  given  to  reading  novels  or  daily 
papers;  nor  do  they  attend  theatres.  Sermons  oc- 
cupy a  much  larger  space  in  their  thoughts  than  they 
do  in  the  thoughts  of  those  whose  minds  are  fed  with 
a  great  variety  of  other  food.  Religion,  too,  with 
them  is  a  more  serious  and  engrossing  matter.  They 
are  more  conversant  with  the  cares  than  with  the 
pleasures  of  the  w^orld.  Either  by  a  simple  process 
of  reasoning,  such  as  vre  might  expect  in  them,  or 
because  they  have  taken  up  the  idea  from  their  Dis- 


32  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

senting  neighbors  (but  perhaps  their  opinions  on  this 
subject  rest  on  both  these  foundations),  they  have 
come  to  think  that  he  is  only  a  pretended  Minister  of 
the  Word,  who  cannot  in  his  own  pulpit  minister  the 
Word  from  the  stores  of  his  own  mind.  He  who, 
when  he  mislays  or  forgets  his  manuscript,  is  obliged 
to  close  the  service  without  a  sermon,  they  will  not 
regard  as  a  Minister  of  the  Word.  They  hear  our 
opponents  calling  such  Ministers  *' hirelings"  and 
"dumb  dogs,"  and  some  of  them  have  come  to  repeat 
the  opprobrious  terms.  It  will  never  do  for  us  to 
neglect  (there  are  good  reasons  for  our  carefully  con- 
sidering) the  opinions  of  these  classes.  Their  opinions, 
by  a  constant  pressure  from  below,  and  by  the  rise  of 
many  from  these  classes  to  those  above,  are  spread- 
ing upward.  And  is  it  fair  to  a  large  part  of  our 
congregations  that  we  should  put  them  in  the  dis- 
agreeable position  of  hearing  their  Minister  taunted 
in  this  way  by  our  opponents?  And  if  they  are 
unable  to  answer  these  taunts,  does  not  that  give  rise 
to  a  probability  that  they  will  not  always  be  able  to 
bear  them? 

2G.  Hitherto  I  have  been  recalling  thoughts  which 
frequently  occupied  my  mind  before  I  commenced  the 
practice  of  Extemporary  Preaching,  and  which  at 
last  determined  me  to  make  the  attempt.  I  will  now 
proceed  to  some  questions  which  the  adoption  of  the 
practice  will  at  times  oblige  one  to  discuss  or  con- 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  33 

sidcr.  I  shall  then  describe  the  method  I  pursued  for 
carrying  out  my  determination,  and  afterwards  give 
so  much  of  the  results  of  my  experience  in  the  com- 
position of  sermons,  and  on  some  other  kindred  sub- 
jects, as  I  suppose  may  be  of  some  use  to  others. 
One  way,  but  a  wholly  inadequate  way,     ,  27.  How 

"  '  "^  ^  •^'     the  question 

of  putting  the  question    raised   in  these    —Which  is 

best,  to  read 

pages,  is  to  ask  at  once.  Which  would  be  written  ser- 
the  best,  a  sermon  written  and  read,  or  pleach  cx- 
one  on  the  same  subject  preached  extem-  ^^^^^i^I\q 
porarily,  by  the  same  person  ?  I  am  pre-  ^®  P^*^- 
pared  to  hear  many,  both  among  the  laity  and  the 
clergy,  exclaim  unhesitatingly,  "  The  one  that  is  writ- 
ten and  read,  because,  at  all  events,  it  will  be  more 
carefully  composed."  In  the  course  of  what  I  have 
yet  to  say,  I  trust  that  I  shall  be  able  to  bring  my 
readers  to  see  that  the  very  reverse  of  this  ought  to 
be,  and  will  generally  be  the  case ;  but  what  I  now 
wish  to  show  is,  how  this  question  ought  to  be  put. 
The  comparison  must  be  made,  not  between  the  writ- 
ten and  the  extemporary  sermons  of  a  man  who  has  had 
some  practice  in  writing  and  none  in  Extemporary 
Preaching,  but  of  one  who  has  given  himself  the 
trouble  to  put  his  power  of  Extemporary  Preaching 
somewhat  on  a  level  with  his  attainments  in  written 
composition;  for  of  course  there  can  be  no  com- 
parison between  the  sermons  of  one  who  has  not  done 
this.     Such  an  one  may  have  acquired  the  power  of 


34  EXTExMPORARY    PREACHING, 

writing  with,  as  the  case  may  be,  more  or  less  skill, 
but  may  not  have  acquired  any  power  at  all  of  Ex' 
temporary  Preaching.  In  his  case,  therefore,  the 
comparison  would  be  between  something  and  nothing. 
Another  point  to  be  settled  in  the  consideration  of 
this  question  is.  What  is  meant  by  the  best  sermon? 
Plainly  not  the  one  that  will  read  the  best  when  in 
print,  for  primarily,  and  ex  vi  terniini,  a  sermon  is 
something  intended  to  be  spoken  and  heard,  not 
something  to  be  read;  and  what  we  are  speaking 
about  is  not  reading,  but  hearing  sermons.  The 
merits,  then,  of  sermons  are  to  be  decided  by  the 
effect  they  respectively  produce  upon  a  present  lis- 
tening congregation.  The  question  before  us,  there- 
fore, is  this:  Which  will  produce  the  most  powerful, 
abiding,  and  beneficial  effect,  a  written  and  read  ser- 
mon, or  an  extemporary  sermon;  both  being  delivered 
by  a  man  who  has  paid  as  much  attention  to  the  one 
method  as  to  the  other ;  or,  if  they  are  preached  by  dif- 
ferent persons,  they  must  be  persons  of  equal  ability  and 
attainments,  and  who  have  had  equal  practice  in  their 
respective  styles  of  composition  and  delivery?  If  the 
question  be  put  in  this  way,  and  it  is  the  only  fair 
way  of  putting  it,  I  can  hardly  imagine  any  clergy- 
man who  has  made  some  proficiency  in  the  practice  of 
speaking,  or  any  congregation  that  listens  to  such  a 
speaker,  hesitating  a  moment  for  a  reply  to  the  ques- 
tion.    This  is  one  of  those  questions  which  to  state 


EXTEMPORAllY    PREACHING.  35 

properly  is  to  answer.     I  need  not,  however,  in  this 

pLace,  say  any  thing  more  directly  upon  it,  because  a 

great  part  of  the  contents  of  these  pages  are  a  reply 

to  it;  every   thing   indeed   throughout   them   having 

reference  to  it.     Here  I  only  wish  to  show  how  the 

question  ought  to  be  put. 

I  proceed  to  another  point ;  we  should       28.  Ex- 
temporary 
most  of  us  be  benefited  by  any  method  of    Preaching 

secures  con- 
carrymg  on  our  work  which   might,  as  a    tinuous 

•1         I  ...  study  and 

general  rule  secure  continuous  improve-  ij^prove- 
ment  in  the  composition  and  delivery  of  ^^"^' 
our  sermons.  My  own  experience  has  taught  me 
that  writing;  and  readins^  one's  sermons  does  not  effect 
this,  but  that  preachhig  extemporarily  sermons  as 
carefully  studied  as  extemporary  sermons  always 
ouo;ht  to  be,  does  effect  it.  Bacon  tells  us  that  read- 
ing  makes  a  full  man,  writing  an  accurate  man,  and 
speaking  a  ready  man.  What  I  recommend  em- 
braces these  three  kinds  of  discipline.  The  Extem- 
porary Preacher  wdio  is  in  the  constant  practice  of 
properly  studying  his  subject  with  the  view  of 
making  his  discourse  as  worthy  of  his  ofiice  and  as 
effective  as  possible,  will  be  drawn  on  into  many 
fields  of  inquiry.  So  also  it  may  be  said  will  the 
writer  of  sermons  ;  but  not,  I  think  so  continuously, 
or  with  so  much  benefit  to  himself.  The  man  who 
preaches  extemporarily,  that  is,  who  gives  himself  the 
trouble  to  do  it  properly,  must  have  the  subject-matter 


36  EXTExMPORARY    PREACHING. 

of  his  sermons  very  frequently  in  his  thoughts,  and 
must  give  himself  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in  perfect- 
ing every  sermon  he  preaches;  and  this  amount  of 
thought  directed  to  his  work  will  bring  him  sooner 
or  later  to  understand  what  materials  his  sermons 
require.  He  will  thus  be  led  on  to  be  ever  adding 
to  his  critical,  historical,  and  philological  knowledge  ; 
he  will  keep  up  and  extend  his  acquaintance  with  the 
works  of  the  great  writers  on  ethical  science ;  nor  will 
he  allow  himself  to  be  ignorant  of  the  controversies 
of  the  present  or  of  past  times.  He  will  find  these 
kinds  of  knowledge  necessary,  because  he  will  find 
that  there  are  parts  of  his  subject  which  it  will  be 
impossible  for  him  to  handle  properly  without  them. 
He  Avill,  I  think,  become  a  far  deeper  and  more  varied 
student  than  the  man  who  reads  written  sermons. 
He  is  likely  to  read  more,  and  certainly  to  digest 
more  completely  the  fruits  of  his  reading,  and  to  make 
them  more  completely  his  own.  The  man  who  reads 
written  sermons,  supposing  him  to  have  started  with 
an  equally  conscientious  desire  to  do  his  work 
thoroughly,  is  not  under  the  same  pressure  and  impul- 
sion to  study  widely  and  deeply,  and  to  make  the 
fruits  of  his  study  his  own.  The  pressure  is  neither 
so  strong  nor  so  continuous.  His  method  does  not 
require  it.  He  has  to  produce  something  on  paper, 
and  not  in  his  own  mind.  There  is  a  wide  difi*erence 
between  these  two  wavs  of  working^,  and  these  two 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  37 

kinds  of  -work.  lie  has  not  so  constantly  before  his 
mind  that  which  is  the  end  of  speaking — the  effect  to 
be  produced.  When  the  writer  of  sermons  has  seven 
or  eight  hundred  by  him,  he  must  be  very  different 
from  the  generality  of  mankind  if  he  still  continues 
the  labor  of  writing  week  after  week.  And  indeed, 
why  should  he?  He  has  nothing  fresh  to  write  upon; 
and  after  so  much  practice  in  writing,  he  can  hardly 
hope  to  produce  any  thing  better  than  what  he  has 
ready  at  hand.  With  the  Extemporary  Preacher  it 
is  quite  another  thing.  His  work  is  never  done.  His 
weekly  preparation  is  incessant.  His  studies  can 
never  be  laid  aside.  Still  as  he  grows  old  he  learns 
something  every  day.  Of  course,  I  never  speak  of 
the  ignorant  ranter,  the  frothy  declaimer,  or  the 
fluent  talker.  Their  way  of  discoursing  will  always 
astonish  the  multitude,  but  that  is  not  what  will 
satisfy  the  man  who  has  a  proper  respect  for  himself, 
for  his  congregation,  and  for  his  sacred  office.  He 
will  study  more  or  less  for  every  sermon,  and  will 
make  out,  after  careful  consideration,  the  form  in 
w^hich  his  materials  should  be  arranged  on  every 
occasion:  every  occasion  thus  becoming  a  fresh  study 
both  for  matter  and  form.  There  can  therefore  be  no 
doubt  but  that  in  a  course  of  years  he  will  acquire 
more,  and  learn  better  how  to  use  what  he  has  ac- 
quired, than  a  reader  of  written  sermons. 


38  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

Nor  will  tlie  practice  of  Extemporary       29.  As  it 
Preacliina:  deprive  a  man  of  the  advantage    poses  wri- 

°        ^  _  ting,  it  v/ii: 

of  attaining  to  that  accuracy  which  is  a    also  secure 

„        .  .,.  T  1       accuracy, 

result  of  written  composition,  i  am  ad- 
dressing myself  to  those  who  have  energy  enough  to 
persevere  for  some  years,  or  for  whatever  time  may  be 
required,  in  the  practice  of  carefully  composing  their 
sermons  during  the  week,  and  then  preaching  them 
extemporarily  on  the  Sunday.  The  time  will  come 
when  full  notes,  containing  only  the  more  important 
parts  in  extenso,  will  be  sufficient;  and  at  last  nothing 
more  will  in  most  cases  be  needed  than  such  a  sketch 
as  may  be  written  on  one  side  of  half  a  sheet  of  note- 
paper,  the  rest  of  the  study  being  carried  on  mentally, 
or  without  the  aid  of  writing.  I  suppose  that  for 
several  years  more  or  less  of  writing  will  be  necessary, 
because  that  alone  will  demonstrate  to  the  preacher 
that  he  has  mastered  his  subject  and  properly  arranged 
his  materials ;  and  so  vrill  enable  his  mind  to  rest  on 
the  fact  that  it  has  already  produced  what  it  now  has 
only  to  reproduce  in  the  pulpit.  And  I  can  imagine 
persons  preferring  to  the  last  to  write  very  full  ab- 
stracts of  what  they  intend  to  say,  and  doing  this 
from  a  religious  regard  for  their  work.  A  sermon, 
such  persons  will  feel,  is  too  important  a  work,  too 
much  depends  upon  it,  to  justify  the  preacher  in 
leavino^  any  thino;  to  the  chances  of  the  moment. 
This  must  be  done  to  some  extent  in  a  debate,  and  it 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACIItNG.  39 

may  be  done  generally  in  secular  oratory,  -when  the 
main  object  is  to  please;  but  it  is  irreverent  and  un- 
wise to  trust  in  this  way  to  the  moment  for  the  matter 
or  the  arrangement  of  a  sermon:  it  will,  therefore,  I 
think,  be  better  that  the  preacher,  however  practised, 
should  never  wholly  lay  aside  the  pen.  He  might 
perhaps  do  without  it,  and  the  majority  of  his  congre- 
gation be  none  the  less  pleased  with  him;  but  there 
will  always  be  some  who  would  have  more  highly  ap- 
preciated a  better  studied  and  more  carefully  arranged 
address.  The  preacher,  too,  ought  to  be  much  dis- 
satisfied with  himself  should  he  fail  to  give  his  subject 
every  advantage.  He  will  be  aware  whether  it  could 
have  been  put  better ;  and  if  so,  the  knowledge  of  how 
his  subject  and  congregation  have  suffered  by  his 
ne2;lio;ence  ous-ht  to  distress  him.  We  find  that  the 
most  perfect  masters  of  ancient  oratory  wrote  their 
speeches  :  there  are  additional  reasons  for  the  preachers 
of  the  Word  doing  the  same.  I  think  then  that  we 
may  conclude  that,  as  a  class,  the  Extemporary 
Preachers  will  be  fuller,  not  less  accurate,  and  cer- 
tainly readier  men  than  the  readers  of  written  sermons. 
Another  very  important  advantage  pos-       30.  This  is 

•^         ^  °  ^  ^  the  natural 

sessed  by  the  Extemporary  Preacher  is  the    and  most 

n    1  •  IT       n      T   T  impressive 

superiority    ot    his    method    oi     delivery,    method  of 

One  of  the  first  objects  of  the  preacher    ^^^^^^y- 

and  of  the  reader  alike  must  be  to  gain  the  attention 

of  the  audience.     In  his  efforts  to  do  this,  the  preacher 


40  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

follows  the  natural  method — the  method  every  one  is 
using  all  his  life  through,  and  with  the  application  of 
which  to  himself  every  one  is  equally  familiar.  It  is 
the  method  of  conversation.  It  is  the  only  way  in 
which  men  use  language  in  their  face-to-face  in- 
tercourse with  each  other.  When  a  man  speaks  to 
another,  the  auditor  feels  that  his  attention  is  chal- 
lenged, and  therefore  attention  is  given  as  a  matter  of 
course  and  of  habit.  It  would  be  unreasonable  if  the 
auditor  did  not  attend.  The  speaker  is  speaking  to 
him.  There  seems  no  room  for  choice.  The  auditor 
is  called  upon  not  only  to  attend,  but  to  do  what 
attention  to  a  speaker  implies,  to  remember,  and  to 
judge  of  what  is  being  said.  This  is  understood  by 
what  is  seen  of  the  present  working  of  the  mind  of 
the  speaker,  in  the  play  of  his  features,  in  the  tones 
of  his  voice,  and  in  the  direct  bearing  of  what  he  is 
saying,  either  by  Avay  of  explanation,  illustration,  or 
appeal,  on  the  actual  feelings  of  the  hearers,  or  on 
the  thoucrhts  that  are  at  that  moment  in  their  minds. 
Contrast  with  this  the  effect  of  reading.  I  hardly 
need  go  into  particulars.  This  is  not  the  natural 
mode  of  address.  It  is  a  mode  with  which  no  one 
can  be  familiar.  It  does  not  challenge  attention. 
We  feel  that  the  reader's  mind  is  not  directed  to  our 
mind,  as  a  speaker's  would  be;  but  rather  that  it  is 
addressed  to  an  imaginary  mind.  It  is  addressed  to 
an  imaginary  unbeliever,  or  an  imaginary  misbeliever, 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  41 

to  an  imaginary  worldling,  or  to  an  imaginary  wrong- 
doer of  some  kind  or  other.  It  is  not  addressed  to 
what  is  passing  in  the  minds  of  the  men  and  women 
then  and  there  present.  And,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
effect  corresponds  with  this  difference;  and  the  reader 
fails  to  gain  attention  to  that  degree  which  is  accorded 
without  any  effort  on  the  part  of  the  congregation  to 
the  Extemporary  Preacher.  We  all  know  that  read- 
ing does  not  possess  the  requisites  for  enabling  it 
always  to  command  our  attention.  And  after  all  there 
are  reasonable  grounds  why  the  congregation  should 
not  make  much  effort  to  listen  to  what  is  read.  It  is 
not  the  living  mind  that  is  wrestling  with  their  minds, 
but  in  reality  a  MS.,  which  through  the  medium  of 
the  reader's  voice,  is  addressing  them.  It  is  the  MS. 
that  is  dealing  with  them,  a  MS.  which  they  might 
read  for  themselves  with  as  much  profit  perhaps  as 
they  will  derive  from  hearing  it  read  to  them. 

I  will  now  advert  to  two  most  opposite       ^l-  ^^- 

swer  to  the 

objections  on  this  subject,  both  of  which    objection 
are  frequently  urged;  both,  however,  of   oflfering 
which  result  from  a  misapprehension    of   nothioff^^  ^ 
what  is  meant  by  Extemporary  Preaching. 
I  have  heard  a  clergyman  say  that  he  disliked  the 
practice,  "  because,  like  David,  he  would  not  make  an 
offering  unto  the  Lord  his  God  of  that  which  cost  him 
nothing."     My  reply  to  him  was,  that  I  thought  that 
his  objection  might  more  frequently  be  levelled  at  ser- 

4* 


42  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

rnons  that  are  read  than  at  those  that  are  preached 
extemporarily.  The  most  conscientious  reader  of 
written  sermons  most  frequently  read  what  on  the 
occasion  of  his  reading  it,  cost  him  nothing,  inasmuch 
as  it  was  written  years  before.  This,  however,  can 
never  be  the  case  with  the  conscientious  Extemporary 
Preacher,  for,  as  every  sermon  he  preaches  must  be 
studied,  his  preaching  is  indeed  a  perpetual  offering 
of  that  which  costs  him  much.  To  be  prepared  every 
Sunday  of  his  life,  however  busy  he  may  have  been 
during  the  week  about  other  matters,  with  two  care- 
fully studied  sermons,  though  not  more  than  the 
Minister  of  the  Word  ought  to  do,  is  more,  I  am  dis- 
posed to  think,  than  those  who  are  capable  of  quoting 
David's  sentiment  as  a  reason  for  rejecting  Extempo- 
rary Preaching,  are  ever  likely  to  do  themselves. 
This  objection  may  be  valid  against  those  who  enter 
the  pulpit  merely  to  declaim,  or  to  talk  incoherently 
on  religious  subjects  for  half  an  hour — it  is  not  un- 
charitable to  say, — in  accordance  rather  with  the 
darkness  than  with  any  light  that  is  within  them. 
But  I  would  put  in  the  balance  against  such  preachers 
a  class  which  must  be  far  more  numerous — that  of  the 
readers  of  unimpressive,  uninteresting,  and  unpro- 
fitable sermons,  and  who,  as  long  as  they  continue  to  be 
readers,  will  never  improve ;  and  here  we  must  not  for- 
get that  the  laity  tell  us  that  to  listen  to  such  sermons 
is  on  their  part  an  offering  which  costs  them  much. 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  43 

Another  objection,  which  takes  just  the     ,  ^2  And 

'^  '  '^  that  It  takes 

opposite    ground,    is    that    Extemporary    too  much 

time.    It  is 

Preaching  requires  too  much  time  and  not  learning 
trouble.  Those  who  raise  this  objection  j-otg^  i^^t 
generally  suppose,  I  find,  that  the  Ex-  [J^e's^^i^ct. 
temporary  Preacher  learns  his  sermon  by 
rote,  and  delivers  it  as  a  player  does  his  part.  It  is 
obvious  that  if  this  objection  is  made  in  good  faith,  it 
must  be  made  by  those  who  have  themselves  such 
small  mental  powers  that  they  cannot  understand  how 
any  one  can  attain  to  the  faculty  of  explaining  vivd 
voce  a  subject  he  has  previously  studied  and  digested, 
and  which  he  has  a  strong  desire  to  convey  and  com- 
mend to  the  minds  of  others.  The  objection,  how- 
ever, I  believe  is  only  partially  made  in  good  faith. 
Such  an  objector  really  does  find  some  difiiculty  in 
forming  a  conception  of  a  mental  effort  of  this  kind — 
no  great  thing  after  all,  indeed  not  more  than  every 
well-educated  youth  ought  to  be  capable  of  making — 
but  he  also,  and  that  is  probably  his  chief  object, 
wishes  to  insinuate  that  the  Extemporary  Preacher's 
motive  is  vanity,  and  vanity  of  such  an  inordinate  and 
irrational  kind,  that  he  will,  in  order  to  gratify  it, 
give  himself  the  trouble  of  learning  by  heart  two  ser- 
mons every  week  of  his  life.  If  a  man  could  be 
found  who  might  be  able  to  make  such  an  effort  of 
perseverance  and  memory,  still,  I  think,  he  would 
hardly  be  disposed  to  continue  it  after  a  few  months' 


44  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

experience  of  the  time  it  required.  Besides,  if  a  man 
were  to  trust  in  this  way  to  his  memory  only,  he  must 
occasionally  break  down  in  the  most  complete  and  dis- 
tressing manner.  This  objection  is  as  puerile  as  the 
former  one.  Neither  of  the  two  kinds  of  preaching 
they  suppose  at  all  resembles  that  which  I  am  endea- 
voring to  recommend  in  these  pages.  Still  it  may  be 
of  some  use  to  have  made  this  mention  of  them ;  for 
marking  off  what  is  not  meant,  contributes  towards 
giving  a  definite  idea  of  what  is  meant. 
33.  It  is  a  A  third  objection  one  hears  very  fre- 

security 

against  ver-     quently    urged     is,    that     Extemporary 
lions.  Preaching  abounds  in  repetitions.     I  dare 

say  a  great  deal  of  repetition  is  heard  in 
the  so-called  sermons  of  mere  declaimers  and  extem- 
porary talkers,  but  it  ought  never  to  be  heard  in  those 
of  the  Extemporary  Preacher.  He  is  a  man  who 
knows  what  sermons  ought  to  be,  and  takes  care  that 
the  matter  of  each  of  his  own  shall  be  arranged  on  a  plan 
for  every  part  of  which  there  is  a  good  reason.  Nothing 
can  be  omitted  or  transposed.  This  excludes  the 
possibility  of  repetition.  And  we  may  ask,  What 
reason  is  there  for  repetitions  in  religious  any  more 
than  in  political  or  judicial  addresses?  Indeed,  there 
is  less  reason;  for  an  advocate  or  a  parliamentary 
speaker  must  often  be  obliged  to  speak  when  more  or 
less  unprepared  to  do  so.  This  can  never  happen  to 
a  preacher.     I  am  writing  to  educated  men,  who  are 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  45 

too  self-respecting  and  have  too  much  respect  for 
their  sacred  work,  ever  to  omit  the  previous  consid- 
eration of  what  they  shall  say  from  the  pulpit.  There 
will  be  some  who  will  not  do  this  as  carefully  as  it 
should  be  done,  or  who,  from  a  want  of  skill  in  com- 
position which  nature  has  denied  them  the  power  of 
acquiring,  or  from  an  inability  to  put  any  thing,  even 
to  their  own  minds,  otherwise  than  in  a  confused  and 
illogical  manner,  will  be  exposed  to  this  objection; 
but  these  are  people  who  would  be  just  as  confused, 
as  illogical,  and  incoherent,  and  as  full  of  repetitions 
of  ideas,  if  not  of  words,  in  written  discourses.  I  am 
disposed  to  think  that  this  objection  is  frequently 
made  on  very  insufficient  grounds,  being  merely  taken 
up  as  the  readiest  weapon  that  comes  to  hand,  when 
the  objector  for  some  other  reason  dislikes  either  the 
preacher  or  Extemporary  Preaching. 

As   this   other   reason   is   one   that  is       ^4.    It  is 

too  earnest 
rather  felt  than  expressed,  it  results  in    and  direct 

1        T      -n    1  .1  ^  .       ,  .        .  foi"  some 

what  i  will  describe  as  the  tacit  objection    hearers. 

of  those  who,  not  being  in  religion  of  a  zealous  tem- 
perament themselves,  dislike  being  brought  in  contact 
with  the  zeal  of  others.  To  such  persons  there  is  an 
earnestness  and  directness  in  extemporary  preaching 
which  is  distasteful.  But  the  fault  here  is  not  in  the 
preacher,  or  in  the  method  he  adopts.  What  is  really 
objected  to,  is  what  others  will  regard  as  one  of  the 
peculiar  merits  of  that  method. 


46  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

35.    False        I  have   secn   the    practice    of  reading 

inferences  in 

fayor  of  written  sermons  defended  on  the  ground 

from^fifi'se  that  the  Preacher  is  not  a  debater.  True, 
analogies.  -g^^  ^^^  addresses  of  no  kind  to  be  de- 
livered without  book  except  such  as  are  called  for  in 
debate?  And  are  we  to  believe  that  the  practice  with 
respect  to  Preaching  of  all  Churches  in  all  times,  ex- 
cepting that  of  our  own  Church,  is  wrong?  And  what 
is  there  in  exposition,  exhortation,  rebuke,  warning, 
and  the  appeals  a  Minister  of  the  Word  must  make 
that  renders  the  reading  them  from  a  MS.  the  most 
appropriate  method  of  delivering  them?  It  is  also 
said  that  the  Preacher  is  near  of  kin  to  the  lecturer 
on  Moral  Philosophy,  and  that  as  lectures  on  this 
subject  are  generally  read;  therefore  sermons  also 
should  be  read.  No  such  thing.  It  might  be  better 
if  the  lecturer  were  so  completely  master  of  his  sub- 
ject as  to  be  able  to  speak  upon  it.  But  there  is  no 
analogy  between  the  two.  The  Preacher  is  not  a 
lecturer;  nor  is  the  lecturer  a  Preacher.  A  man  may 
be  a  very  good  lecturer  on  the  Exegesis  of  Scripture, 
or  on  Theology,  and  yet  be  a  very  ineffective  Preacher. 
36.    The  I  ^vish  the  kind  of  Preacher  I  have  in 

true  Preach- 
er is  very        view  in  this  book  to  be  distinguished  in  as 

different  m  i      /»  i     , 

from  the  trenchant  a  manner  as  possible  irom  what 

rreaiher.        ^^    Called  the  popular  Preacher.      Many 

being   acquainted    only  with   the    latter 

have  a  prejudice  against  extemporary  preaching  of 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  47 

every  kind.     I  endeavor  to  describe  in    these  pages 
the  learning,  the  never-ending  study  and  thought,  the 
style,  the  aims  of  the  former.     The  popular  Preacher, 
however,  may  be  described,  taking  the  common  type 
of  the  class  with  instances  of  which  most  persons  are 
familiar,  as  one  in  whom,  regarded  as  a  speaker,  the 
gifts  of  imaginative  power  and  of  great  command  of 
language   have  mastered  the  understanding  and  the 
judgment;    and  whose  knowledge  seldom  makes  his 
hearers  aware  of  their  own  ignorance.    This  description 
of  the  popular  Preacher  does  not  lead  us  to  infer  in 
him  the  possession  of  much  capacity  for  doing  useful 
work  in  the  Ministry  of  the  Word.     And,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  very  little  is  done,  in  such  a  way  as  to  have  any 
permanent  effect,  by  such  Preachers.     Even  those  who 
are  themselves  of  such  mental  calibre  as  to  admire  and 
run  after  a  popular  Preacher  of  this  kind  would  be 
more  benefited  by  a  wise  and  well  furnished  Preacher. 
These  are  the  very  minds  that  require  the  discipline 
of  exact  thought,  and  accurate  reasoning.     Popular 
sermons  full  of  flights  of  the  imagination,  and  decked 
out  with  brilliancy  of  language,  occupy  among    the 
w^orks  of  the  human  mind  the  position  the  jelly-fish 
holds  in  the  animal  kingdom.     Its  coloring  possesses 
some  attractive  brightness;  but  it  is  an  invertebrate 
affair,  without  bone  or  muscle.     As  soon  as  you  at- 
tempt to  handle  it,  it  collapses  into  nothing.     Popular 
sermons  will  seldom  bear  printing.     Their  appropriate 


48  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

element  is  the  peculiar  atmosphere  which  surrounds 
the  pulpit  of  the  popular  Preacher.  Thej  cannot 
be  carried  away,  or  turned  to  any  useful  purpose. 
No  one  expects  them  to  yield  meat  for  the  strong 
man;  but  neither  in  truth  do  they  supply  much  milk 
for  babes.  It  is  hard  that  the  style  of  Preaching 
which  in  its  substance,  often  in  its  aims,  is  most  unlike 
this,  should  suffer  in  any  body's  estimation,  merely 
from  their  both  happening  to  use  the  same  method  of 
delivery. 


CHAPTER  II. 


MY  OWN  METHOD  OF  ACQUIRING    THE  POWER  OF 
PREACHING  EX  TEMPORE. 


I  WILL  now  proceed  to  describe  to  my       1-    The 
^  .  ,  *^      method  I 

younger    brethren    in    the    Ministry    the    adopted. 

method  I    adopted   in    carrying   out  my    mons  for 

resolution.     It  was  at  the  beginning    of   p^rary" 

the   year    1854,    and    I   commenced    by    P^^eadnng 

•^  '  -'      should  be 

writing   during   the   week   two    sermons,    studied  and 

composed. 

Knowing  that  they  were  to  be  preached 
without  the  aid  of  the  manuscripts,  or  even  notes,  I 
studied  the  matter  and  arrangement  of  each  more 
carefully  than  I  had  ever  done  before  for  sermons  I 
had  written  with  the  vievr  of  their  being  merely  read 
to  the  congregation.  I  was  led  to  do  this  because  I 
foresaw  that  confusion  of  thought  and  redundancy  of 
matter  not  properly  required  by  the  subject  must  be 
avoided,  as  faults  of  this  kind  would  very  probably 
confuse  me  in  the  pulpit;  while  nothing  could  more 
contribute  to  aid  my  memory  and  smooth  my  path 
while  speaking  than  a  natural  and  logical  arrange- 
5  49 


50  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

ment  of  all  that  I  had  to  say.  That  I  might  make  as 
sure  as  possible  of  this,  I  divided  each  discourse  into 
chapters,  each  chapter  being  a  distinct  part  of  the 
subject;  and  each  chapter  I  divided  into  paragraphs, 
each  paragraph  being  a  distinct  step  in  the  treatment 
of  what  was  the  subject  of  the  chapter.  To  each 
chapter  was  prefixed  a  Roman,  to  each  paragraph  an 
Arabic  numeral.  Between  the  paragraphs  I  left  small 
intervals,  in  which  I  wrote,  in  a  few  words,  a  heading 
of  the  contents  of  the  paragraph.  The  headings  I 
afterwards  copied  on  one  side  of  half  a  sheet  Of  note- 
paper.  This  enabled  me  to  see  at  a  glance  how  I  had 
treated  my  subject,  and  to  judge  more  easily  than  I 
could  do  by  turning  over  the  pages  of  the  MS.  whether 
my  method  of  treating  it  was  natural  and  logical.  On 
Saturday  I  again  looked  over  my  two  sermons,  in 
doing  so,  making  perhaps  more  use  of  the  short  ab- 
stracts than  of  the  complete  MSS.  And  again  on  the 
Sunday,  I  gave  the  half-hour  preceding  each  service 
to  the  final  consideration  of  what  I  was  then  about  to 
preach.  These  two  subsequent  studies  enabled  me  to 
make  several  improvements  both  in  the  way  of  addi- 
tions and  omissions;  because  what  I  was  endeavoring 
to  do  was  to  form  each  sermon  into  a  connected  and 
coherent  whole,  from  which  every  thing  must  be  elimi- 
nated that  had  not  a  definite  purpose.  My  sermons, 
then,  having  been  written  in  the  course  of  the  previous 
week,  after  much  consideration  of  the  subject,  and 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  51 

having  been  again  studied  on  Saturday,  and  once 
more  referred  to  before  the  service  on  Sunday,  the  re- 
sult was,  that  when  I  entered  the  church  I  almost 
knew  the  MS.  by  heart.  The  line  of  argument  and 
every  explanation  and  illustration  were  distinctly  before 
my  mind.  In  consequence,  I  did  not  any  where  pause 
for  a  thought  or  a  word.  I  had  no  idea  that  this  was 
to  be  regarded  as  extemporary  preaching,  yet  I  was 
not  dissatisfied  with  it  for  a  beginning.  It  encouraged 
me  to  hope,  that  though  I  was  only  now  attempting 
what  I  ought  to  have  been  taught  at  school  ^  more 
than  twenty  years  earlier,  and  though  I  had  no  na- 
tural command  of  language,  and  was  besides  what  is 
called  nervous,  and  that  to  a  very  painful  degree, 
still,  that  I  might  at  last  succeed  in  acquiring  the 
power  of  addressing  my  congregation  from  the  stores 
of  my  own  mind,  which  I  had  become  convinced  ought 
to  be  the  practice  of  every  Minister  of  the  Word. 

Some  of  my  readers  will  probably  be       2.  Neces- 
surprised  at  finding  me  entering  at  all  on    vious  study 

f     1   •       1    •       1  r\r'  ^^^  COm- 

particulars  oi  this  kmd.  Or  course  there  position. 
are  many  persons  who  would  rather  have  it  supposed 
that  they  possess  the  power  of  composing  and  de- 
livering sermons  properly  by  the  gift  of  Nature,  or  at 
all  events  who  would  rather  conceal  from  the  world 
the  method  by  which  they  acquired  it.     But  I  am  not 

'  Boys  might  readily  acquire  at  school  a  power  which  would 
afterwards  become  that  of  speaking  in  public,  by  being  made  to 


52  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

writing  these  pages  for  the  perusal  of  those,  if  there 
be  any  such  persons,  upon  whom  Nature  has  bestowed 
this  gift.  I  have,  hoAvever,  little  belief  in  orators  of 
any  kind,  and  above  all  of  good  preachers,  by  the 
mere  grace  of  Nature.  A  man  does  not  even  become 
a  mob-orator  without  practice.  We  certainly  do  not 
hear  of  any  great  orator  ever  having  found  himself  in 
ready-made  possession  of  his  power  of  skilfully  mani- 
pulating, if  I  may  so  speak,  thought  and  language; 
but  we  know  that  he  attained  to  it  by  laborious  study 
and  long  practice.  Not  but  that  we  may  find  many 
who  have  a  kind  of  natural  fluency;  but  I  am  very 
far  from  attaching  much  value  to  this,  taken  merely 
by  itself,  whether  it  be  a  natural  gift  or  an  acquired 
power.  What  I  am  recommending  is,  to  use,  if  you 
have  it,  or  to  acquire,  if  you  have  it  not,  the  power 
of  delivering  fluently  and  properly  a  sermon  properly 
composed  by  yourself;  and  to  compose  a  sermon  pro- 
perly does  not  come  by  the  gift  of  Nature.  It  is  not 
the  result  of  an  intuitive  process,  but  of  study,  know- 
ledge, reflection.  A  man  must  collect  his  materials  ; 
he  must  be  able  to  judge  of  the  value  and  use  of  these 
materials ;  and  he  must  learn  how  to  deal  with  them 
and  arrange  them.  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any 
royal  road  to  the  accomplishment  of  these  things,  any 

give  the  substance  of  their  wi'itten  themes  or  essays  vivd  voce,  and 
in  the  same  way  to  give  an  account  of  what  they  may  have  been 
translating  or  reading. 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  53 

more  than  there  is  to  the  acquisition  of  any  thing  else 
that  is  worth  having.  Some,  of  course,  have  a  greater 
aptitude  for  this  work  than  others,  but  that  is  all  that 
can  be  said.  Energy  and  perseverance  will  make 
ample  amends  for  some  deficiency  of  natural  aptitude ; 
and  no  one  need  be  ashamed  of  energy  and  perseve- 
rance; without  them  a  natural  aptitude  for  preaching 
will  be  of  little  value  to  its  possessor  or  to  his  parish- 
ioners. Genius,  we  all  know,  is  necessary  for  great 
eminence  in  any  department  of  art,  or  literature,  or 
intellectual  work  of  any  kind,  but  these  pages  are  not 
written  with  the  slightest  idea  of  their  being  at  all  in- 
strumental in  producing  great  eminence  in  any  of 
those  who  may  read  them.  Those  who  have  the 
capacity  for  becoming  greatly  eminent  will  know  of 
themselves,  without  the  assistance  of  any  thing  I  or 
others  can  tell  them,  in  what  way  to  secure  that  emi- 
nence. They  will  work,  and  work  effectually,  without 
such  guidance.  My  object  is  to  invite  the  attention 
of  my  younger  brethren  to  that  which  is  the  subject 
of  these  pages;  and  to  show  to  those  who  may  come 
to  agree  with  me  as  to  what  they  ought  to  do,  that 
they  may  probably  be  able  to  give  effect  to  what 
they  deem  their  duty  in  this  matter,  by  following  the 
course  I  adopted  and  found  tolerably  successful.  I 
am  not  at  all  prejudiced  in  favor  of  my  own  method. 
There  will  be  some  who  at  an  early  period  of  their 
lives  became  habituated  to  speaking  in  public,  and 

5* 


54  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

tliey  may  therefore  think  the  method  I  followed  too 
tedious  and  laborious.  Possibly  they  may  be  able  to 
dispense  with  some  of  the  writing  I  recommend ;  but 
not,  I  think,  with  any  of  the  thought  and  study  I 
recommend.  All  that  I  am  solicitous  about  is,  that 
we  should  see  what  is  our  duty  as  Ministers  of  the 
Word,  and  endeavor  to  carry  it  out.  If  what  I  am 
writing  should  produce  such  an  effect  in  the  minds  of 
some,  I  am  quite  content  that  others  should  be  sur- 
prised at  my  giving  myself  the  trouble  to  describe 
what  I  thought  and  what  I  did  in  this  matter. 

But  to  return  to  the  method  I  was  pur-       3.  Ser- 
mons writ- 
suing.     I  went  on  as  I  had  commenced,    ten  for 

_■  T    T  •  reading 

Every  week  1  wrote  two  sermons  in  ex-    proved 
tenso,   after  having  carefully  studied  my    f"r  Extern- 
subjects  and  arranged  the   plan  of  each    p^.^^^T- 
before  sitting  down  to  write.     This  pre- 
vious arrangement  of  plan  is  necessary,  otherwise  the 
probability  is,  that  the  sermon  will  be  written  without 
a  plan.     I  never  again  used  an  old  sermon.     I  found 
all  I  possessed  unfit  for  Extemporary  Preaching.    The 
faults   which   I   now  saw  made  them  unsuitable    for 
being  so  used  were  faults  which  must  have  made  them 
difficult  for    the  congregation  to  have  followed  with 
continuous  apprehension  when  read.     They  were  more 
or  less  full  of  irrelevant  thoughts,  words,  and  even 
paragraphs.     They  were  often  unprogressive  through- 
out— that  is,  they  did  not  set  out  with  a  distinct  pur- 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  55 

pose  to  be  reached  in  the  end,  to  which  every  thing 
in  the  course  of  the  sermon  was  duly  and  regularly 
subordinated.  They  were  sometimes  very  disjointed 
and  unconnected,  all  the  parts  not  being  logically 
parts  of  the  same  whole,  but  only  in  juxtaposition; 
because,  as  in  the  game  of  dominoes,  the  beginning 
of  a  paragraph  had  been  suggested  by  the  close  of 
that  which  preceded  it.  They  had  too  little  coherence 
to  be  lifted  off  the  paper.  These,  and  other  faults 
which  had  not  been  observed,  or,  if  observed,  had  not 
been  corrected  when  the  MSS.  were  only  to  be  read, 
became  apparent  when  I  looked  over  them  with  the 
view  of  preaching  them  extemporarily.  This  one 
fact,  which  I  am  setting  down  just  as  I  found  it,  must 
alone  go  some  way  towards  proving  the  probable  in- 
feriority of  the  method  of  reading  written  discourses. 
I  soon  beo;an  to  study  and  compose  4.  Advis- 
during  the  week  more  than  the  two  ser-    pare  MSS. 

for  Extem- 

mons  necessary  for  the  coming  Sunday,    porary 

I   did   this    designedly,    because   we    all    on  aii 

know  that  a  man  can  get  through  more    up^n^vh^Jji 

work  by  doino;  one  thing  at  a  time,  than    one  would 

'^  ^  °  '  wish  to 

by  doing  several  things  at  the  same  time;    pi-each. 

and  I  thought  it  proper  that  I  should  have  sermons  of 
my  own  carefully  studied  and  composed  on  every  par- 
agraph in  the  Gospels,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and 
the  Epistles  of  doctrinal  or  practical  interest,  and 
on  all  those  chapters  of  the  Old  Testament  which  are 


56  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

read  as  the  first  lessons  of  the  Sunday  morning  and 
afternoon  services  throughout  the  year.  I  set  myself 
down  to  this  task  with  the  determination  to  complete  it 
before  I  began  to  occupy  myself  with  any  thing  else. 
I  completed  it  in  a  little  more  than  four  years,  in 
which  time  I  had  composed  not  far  short  of  five  hun- 
dred and  fifty  sermons  m  extenso.  AYhether  I  was 
away  from  home,  or  whether  I  had  friends  staying 
with  me,  I  endeavored  not  to  intermit  my  work  en- 
tirely. Of  course  I  soon  got  ahead  of  what  was  re- 
quired for  the  coming  Sunday.  Hence  it  happened 
that  I  frequently  preached  a  sermon  I  had  written 
some  months,  or  even,  after  a  time,  that  I  had  written 
a  year  or  more  previously ;  but  as  they  had  all  been 
composed  with  a  view  to  being  used  for  Extemporary 
Preaching,  I  found  it  as  easy  to  preach  those  that  had 
been  written  some  months  previously  as  one  that  had 
been  written  during  the  foregoing  week.  Having  now 
completed  the  number  of  sermons  I  wished  to  have  by 
me  in  writing,  I  for  some  time  only  wrote  my  MSS. 
at  about  half  the  length  that  would  be  required  in 
preaching  them ;  and  then,  after  a  time,  I  wrote  only 
short  abstracts  on  half  a  sheet  of  note-paper. 
5.  Result  Twelve  years  have  now  passed  since  1 

of  twelve  -^  ^  ^ 

years'  ex-  began  to  work  on  this  plan,  and  I  have  not 
The  Extern-  yet  had  occasion  to  preach  all  the  ser- 
Preacher         mons   I  wrote  in    these  first  four  years. 

preichThe        ^<^™^  ^^  ^'^  ^^^'  ^  ^'^^®  ^^^^  ^^^^  *^^^ 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  57 

once,  but  practically  I  have  never  preached    same  ser- 
mon twice, 
the   same  sermon  twice:   for  as   I  never 

preach  without  devoting  to  the  subject  I  am  going  to 
preach  upon  all  the  attention  I  can  give  it,  and  with- 
out mastering  all  I  am  going  to  say  upon  it,  I  almost 
in  every  case  more  or  less  recast  the  abstract,  some- 
times completely  remodelling  it;  and  as  I  have  long 
trusted  entirely  to  the  moment  for  the  language  and 
the  composition  of  what  I  have  to  say,  though,  after 
five  or  six  years  I  may  preach  from  an  old  text,  and 
may,  in  preparing  for  the  pulpit  on  the  occasion  of  my 
doing  so,  look  over  an  old  MS.,  it  will  not  be  an  old 
sermon  that  I  shall  preach,  but  one  that  will  have  the 
benefit  of  the  study  and  practice  of  the  five  or  six  in- 
tervening years.  It  would  surprise  one  not  acquainted 
with  such  matters,  how  greatly  a  little  increase  in 
one's  own  knowledge,  or  a  slight  change  in  one's  views, 
or  a  change  in  the  requirements  of  the  times,  or  of 
one's  parishioners  at  the  moment,  will  affect  even  the 
form  of  a  discourse,  by  leading  to  the  introduction  of 
some  new  ideas,  or  by  making  subordinate  that  which 
previously  held  a  prominent  place,  or  vice  versd;  but 
so  it  is.  Indeed,  it  can  rarely  happen  that  the  Ex- 
temporary Preacher  who  attends  to  his  work  will 
preach  the  same  sermon  twice;  the  language  of  course 
can  never  be  repeated,  for  the  changes  that  take  place 
in  one's  mind,  even  if  in  the  meantime  there  has  been 
nothing  that  might  be  called  mental  growth,  and  the 


OQ  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

difference  in  one's  fcclin;^s  iit  tlic  moment  of  preach- 
ing, render  tliat  impossible.  The  activity  of  tlie  ima- 
gination and  the  flow  of  language  are  ever  varying, 
as  they  depend  in  a  great  measure  on  the  circum- 
stances of  the  moment. 

f'-  '^JlJL  Those  who  are  constitutionally  shy  and 

cuUy  is  to  nervous,  and  whose  natural  defects  of  this 
first  effort.  l<ind  havc  perhaps  been  increased,  as  is 
frequently  the  case  with  clergymen,  by 
the  habits  of  a  studious  life,  will  find  that  a  very 
great  effort  is  required  for  making  the  first  attempt. 
It  is  voluntarily  submitting  oneself  to  a  kind  of  unseen 
martyrdom.  But  the  first  Sunday  will  do  much 
towards  mitigating  these  distressing  feelings,  because 
it  will  prove  the  possibility,  where  before  all  was  un- 
certainty, of  carrying  out  one's  resolve.  That  be- 
ginning will  enable  the  preacher  to  feel  assured  that 
if  he  will  give  himself  the  same  amount  of  trouble  he 
has  just  expended  in  preparing  for  liis  first  Sunday, 
he  will  on  subsequent  Sundays  do  at  least  as  well  and 
be  as  safe  from  breaking  down  and  hesitation;  or 
rather,  he  may  have  reason  for  hoping  that  continued 
practice  will  give  a  proportionate  increase  of  con- 
fidence, ease,  and  power.  Here,  as  in  so  many  other 
things,  it  is  the  first  step  which  is  the  difficult  one  to 
take;  that  once  taken,  the  way  is  smoothed  for  all  the 
steps  that  are  to  follow.  I  note  this  for  the  encour- 
agement of  those  who   may  be   thinking  of  making 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACIIINa.  50 

the  attempt.  They  will  find  their  first  effort  far  less 
of  a  failure  tlian  tliey  arc  beforehand  disposed  to  an- 
ticipate. This  will  very  mucli  diminish  Avliat  they 
may  now  be  supposing  will  be  the  mental  distress  of 
their  subsequent  efforts.  In  some  cases,  of  course, 
these  uncomfortable  feelings  will  only  be  removed 
very  gradually.  Many  of  the  most  accustomed 
speakers  have  told  us  that  they  never  rose  to  speak  in 
public  without  experiencing  sensations  of  tliis  kind ; 
though,  indeed,  there  must  be  more  reason  for  their 
feeling  in  this  way  in  the  contests  of  public  life,  than 
there  can  be  for  the  minister  of  the  Word,  who  is  only 
called  upon  to  make  a  short  address  to  his  own 
friendly  congregation  on  his  own  familiar  subjects. 
Speaking  from  my  own  experience,  I  must  say  that 
this  feeling,  to  a  painful  degree,  may  last  for  several 
years,  and  even  afterwards  may  never  entirely  leave 
one.  But  I  found,  even  in  my  first  years  of  Extem- 
porary Preaching,  when  it  was  most  troublesome,  that 
it  seldom  lasted  beyond  the  first  few  sentences.  One 
soon  becomes,  from  the  necessity  of  having  to  attend 
to  what  he  is  about,  so  completely  absorbed  in  his 
subject,  as  generally  to  lose  all  consciousness  even  of 
the  presence  of  the  congregation,  certainly  to  lose  all 
consciousness  of  self.  The  beginner  is  obliged  to  be 
so  intent  on  his  subject,  that  witli  him  this  will  fre- 
quently be  the  case.  When  practice  has  given  him  an 
easier  command  of  himself,  he  will  be  able  to  attend 


60  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

both  to  liis   subject  and  to  his  congregation  at  the 
same  time. 
7.    What         But  I  may  be  asked,  Why  incur  these 

feeling 

harder  to        disagreeable  feelings,  when  they  may  be 

bear  than  o        t 

the  distress  escaped  by  reading  your  sermons :  1 
t*o  speak^  ^'^plj?  ^^^^  I  incurred  them  because  the 
cz  tempore.  feelings  of  humiliation  and  shame  I  ex- 
perienced, as  a  Minister  of  the  Word,  at  reading  my 
sermons,  were  more  distressing.  The  latter  were 
more  distressing,  because  they  impelled  me  to  en- 
counter and  to  continue  to  bear  the  former.  The 
feelings  that  are  suggested  Sunday  after  Sunday,  and 
year  after  year,  by  the  sight  of  an  uninterested,  in- 
attentive, and  uninstructed  congregation,  are  far  more 
disagreeable.  There  is  absolutely  nothing  to  com- 
pensate for  these  feelings,  while  you  are  amply 
compensated  for  the  former  by  the  consciousness  that 
you  are  discharging  a  sacred  duty  to  the  best  of  your 
ability,  and  to  the  ever-increasing  benefit  of  those  to 
whom  you  have  undertaken  to  minister  the  Word. 
8-    111  The  method  by  which  a  man  may  at- 

somo  capes 

Exposition       tempt  to  acquire  the  power  of  Extempo- 
usexi  as  I'ary  Preaching  will  of  course  depend  in  a 

for^Extlm-  gi'^at  measure  upon  the  power  he  has  of 
Pr^^^Tin  speaking  in  public  at  the  time  the  resolu- 
tion is  made  and  the  attempt  commenced. 
Throughout  these  pages  I  am  supposing  the  case, 
which  is  that  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  Clergy,  of  a 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  61 

man  "who  has  to  begin  from  the  beginning,  or  even 
from  a  worse  point  than  the  beginning, — that,  I  mean, 
at  ^vhich  a  man  finds  himself  who  has  always  been  in 
the  habit  of  reading:'  his  discourses,  all  the  while  livinor 
a  somewhat  retired  and  studious  life.  Such  a  person 
comes  to  have  a  profound  distrust  of  himself,  and 
looks  upon  the  demands  that  Extemporary  Preaching 
will  make  upon  him  as  impossibilities  in  his  case:  he 
feels  himself  utterly  incapable  of  complying  with 
them.  There  are  many  such,  and  for  them  mainly 
I  am  writing.  But  there  are  others,  who  have  made 
at  the  University  or  elsewhere  some  attempts  to  speak 
in  public,  and  found  them  not  altogether  unsuccessful; 
and  others,  again,  who  are  conscious  of  possessing 
some  natural  powers  of  this  kind.  These  persons 
will  probably  be  disposed  to  adopt  some  easier  and 
shorter  method  than  the  one  I  am  recommending. 
The  following  anecdote,  which  describes  a  case  I  am 
acquainted  with,  gives  one  of  these  other  methods.  A 
Clergyman,  not  long  after  his  arrival  in  the  parish  of 
which  he  had  recently  become  the  Incumbent,  was 
making  one  of  his  first  rounds  of  pastoral  visits.  On 
entering  the  house  of  a  petty  shopkeeper,  he  expressed 
some  regret  at  not  having  seen  the  man  at  church  on 
the  previous  Sunday.  The  man  replied,  that  it  was 
true;  he  had  not  been  at  the  church;  and  it  was  not 
his  habit  to  be  there  on  Sunday,  for  he  was  a  Dis- 
senter. The  Clergyman  repeated  his  expressions  of 
6 


62  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

regret,  and  asked  the  man  why  he  was  a  Dissenter. 
The  man  replied,  that  as  the  reason  was  asked, 
he  would  unreservedly  give  it.  In  the  Dissenters' 
chapels,  he  said,  the  Minister  always  addressed  the 
congregation  from  what  was  in  his  own  mind;  and 
what  the  Minister  said  was  said  in  such  a  manner 
that  it  was  understood  by  the  people,  and  moved 
their  hearts.  The  case,  however,  was  very  different 
in  the  church.  There,  the  Minister,  although  they 
were  told  that  he  spent  many  years  at  school  and  the 
University,  and  that  he  was  a  very  learned  man,  was 
unable,  from  his  own  mind,  to  say  any  thing  to  his 
people;  and  what  he  read  to  them  was  seldom  under- 
stood by  them,  and  did  not  come  home  to  their  hearts. 
And  their  conclusion  was,  that  they  could  not  believe 
that  God's  Spirit  was  with  the  Church-Minister,  to 
guide  him  in  what  he  was  reading,  and  to  aid  him  in 
reaching  their  hearts.  This  statement  of  the  reason 
which  had  induced  several  of  his  parishioners  to  for- 
sake the  church  for  the  chapel,  the  Clergyman  found 
himself  quite  unable  to  answer.  It  is  true  that  the 
argument  it  contains  does  not  at  every  point  hold 
water;  but  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  have 
answered  it  satisfactorily  to  the  small  tradesman,  for 
after  all  there  was  in  it  a  great  deal  of  solid  truth. 
This  the  Clergyman  felt  strongly.  Here  was  a  cause 
of  weakness  to  the  Church,  and  a  reproach  to  it  which 
was  very  discreditable  to  the  Clergy.     The  more  he 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  63 

thought  of  what  the  man  had  said,  the  more  clearly 
he  saw  that  there  was  but  one  way  of  replying  to  it, 
and  that  was  by  doing  what  he  was  told  the  Clergy 
had  not  the  power  to  do.  He  decided  at  once  what 
he  would  do.  He  had  never  spoken  in  public,  but  he 
determined  immediately  to  acquire  the  power  of  doing 
so.  He  was  aware  that  he  possessed  some  natural 
aptitude  for  speaking,  and  he  therefore  resolved  to 
commence  forthwith  the  following  plan.  On  the  ensu- 
ing Sunday  he  took  the  Bible  up  into  the  pulpit, 
opened  it  at  the  first  chapter  of  St.  Matthew's  Gospel, 
and  announced  to  the  congregation  that  it  was  his 
intention  to  expound  continuously  the  whole  of  that 
Gospel.  He  was  sure  that  he  would  have  something 
to  say  upon  every  paragraph,  and  that  he  would  be 
able  to  say  it;  and  he  trusted  that,  as  he  went  on,  he 
would  find  that  he  required  less  and  less  of  the  text 
for  his  half-hour's  exposition.  He  was  not  disap- 
pointed. Before  he  got  through  St.  Matthew's  Gos- 
pel, he  found  himself  able  to  preach  from  no  more  of 
the  text  than  he  would  have  required  formerly  for 
one  of  his  written  sermons.  The  objection  of  the 
petty  tradesman  and  of  those  who  reasoned  like 
him  was  completely  met^  and  they  returned,  some 
altogether  and  some  in  part,  to  the  Church  they  had 
forsaken.  Here  was  a  great  advantage  gained.  But 
I  must  remind  my  readers  that  only  a  part  of  what  I 
am  recommending  in  these  pages  was  accomplished. 


G4  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

This  Clergyman  had  acquired,  and  on  very  easy  terms, 
the  power  of  preaching  in  the  way  which  alone  can 
secure  the  attention  and  respect  of  ordinary  congrega- 
tions, and  which  has,  besides,  other  advantages;  but 
he  had  done,  in  doing  this,  nothing  to  enrich  the 
matter,  to  enlarge  the  views,  to  strengthen  the  rea- 
soning, and  to  improve  the  arrangement  and  style  of 
what  he  said.  Let  us  suppose  that  every  thing  of 
this  kind  was  added  in  time;  for,  if  not,  then  the 
petty  tradesman  and  his  fellow-seceders  did  not  gain 
much  more  from  the  sermons  of  the  parish  church  to 
Avhich  they  had  returned,  than  they  might  have  gained 
from  those  they  would  have  heard  at  the  chapel  they 
had  been  induced  to  abandon.  How  a  thing  is  said, 
signifies  much ;  but  what  it  is  that  is  said,  signifies 
more. 
9.  Reflec-        J  -^yas  in  the  habit  for  several  years  of 

tions  nnd 

hints  the         committing  to  paper  any  thoughts  which 

RCtllcXl 

practice  of      the  Services  of  the  Sunday,  and  particu- 
p(^rary  larly   the  sermons,   had  suggested.     The 

Treaching       object   of  this  practice  was,   to   preserve 

suggested.  '^  ^  ^  ^ 

The  years        any  thins  that  occurred  to  me,  and  which 

1854,  1855,  -^  ^  ' 

1856.  I  thought  it  might  be  of  use  to  remember. 

A  selection  from  these  memoranda,  it  now  appears  to 

me,  might  have,  for  those  of  my  readers  who  may  be 

disposed  to   give  my  recommendations  a  trial,  some 

little  interest,  perhaps  even  some  little  advantage.     I 

will  therefore  select  a  few  for  their  perusal.     The  en- 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  65 

tries  for  the  first  year,  1854,  have  been  lost.  In 
1855,  those  that  express  a  sense  of  slowness  of  ad- 
vance, sometimes  of  no  advance  at  all,  are  frequent; 
but  I  do  not  find  one  that  presents  any  indication  of 
my  having  ever  from  the  first  wavered  in  my  resolu- 
tion, or  of  my  having  been  dissatisfied  either  with  the 
amount  of  work  it  imposed  upon  me  in  these  first 
years,  or  with  the  abandonment  it  necessitated  of  my 
former  pursuits.  At  that  time  the  labor  was  great 
and  the  apparent  fruits  were  but  slight;  this,  how- 
ever, never  discouraged  me. 

In  1856  I  find,  among  many  I  omit,  the  following 
entries : — 

Jan.  29. — I  am  now  speaking  with  less  prepara- 
tion, and  yet  with  more  ease  than  I  did  a  year  ago. 
I  must  therefore  endeavor  to  be  on  my  guard  against 
falling  into  any  thing  like  slovenly  fluency.  By  care- 
ful attention,  I  suppose,  the  habit  of  speaking  with 
clearness  and  accuracy  may  be  attained  with  as  much 
certainty  as  any  other  habit. 

March  23. — Of  late  I  have  advanced  very  slowly, 
if  at  all.  But  I  remember  that,  as  the  advantage  of 
being  able  to  discharge  one's  duty  in  the  pulpit  pro- 
perly is  great,  so  the  difficulty  of  acquiring  the  power 
of  doing  it  must  be  expected  to  be  proportionately 
great. 

"  Nil  sine  magno 
Vita  labore  dedit  mortalibus." 

6* 


66  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

Aug.  31. — I  find  that,  next  to  a  good  subject  well 
prepared,  what  sets  one  most  at  ease,  is  a  good  con- 
gregation. A  small,  inattentive  congregation  de- 
presses. It  implies  that  the  service,  of  which  the 
exposition  of  the  Word  is  an  important  part,  has 
failed,  as  conducted  by  the  Minister,  to  awaken  in- 
terest. This  want  of  interest  in  the  congregation 
reacts  upon  him  who  is  more  or  less  the  cause  of  it. 
A  good  congregation,  for  the  opposite  reason  (for  the 
feeling  of  interest  in  what  is  going  on  is  very  infec- 
tious), gives  wings  to  the  spirit  of  the  preacher.  It 
contributes  much  towards  loosening  his  tongue  and 
giving  him  freedom  of  speech. 

Oct.  26. — I  felt  sure  to-day  that  the  attention 
which  must  be  given  to  sermons  intended  for  Extem- 
porary Preaching,  such  as  I  have  been  obliged  to  give 
to  mine  for  now  more  than  two  years,  must  improve 
a  Minister  of  the  Word  in  sermon-writing. 

JVov.  16. — I  begin  to  feel  the  good  effect  of  attend- 
ing to  what  is  passing  in  the  minds  of  the  congrega- 
tion. The  speaker  is  aroused  by  seeing  or  feeling 
that  the  minds  of  his  hearers  are  in  contact  with  his 
own  mind.  This  is  a  stimulus  to  thought  and  expres- 
sion of  which  I  knew  nothing  while  I  read  my  ser- 
mons. 

10.  1857.  Jan.  4. — I  was  told  to-day  by  one  of  my 
most  intelligent  parishioners,  that  the  congregation 
were,  as  far  as  he  knew,   without   an   exception,  in 


EXTExMPORARY    PREACHING.  67 

favor  of  my  having  abandoned  the  practice  of  reading 
my  sermons,  and  adopted  that  of  preaching  them 
extemporarily.  As  to  my  own  feelings,  though  not 
altogether  dissatisfied  with  my  progress,  I  am  very 
far  indeed  removed  from  being  satisfied  with  my  per- 
formance. I  had  much  to  unlearn  as  well  as  much 
to  learn,  and  my  progress  is  very  slow;  I  have  how- 
ever, no  thought  of  abandoning  the  attempt  I  am 
making. 

Feb.  8. — What  I  say  is  beginning  to  be  better  than 
what  I  am  capable  of  writing;  it  is  much  better  put. 
It  was  so  to-day. 

Feb.  15. — I  find  that  the  more  entirely  I  trust  to 
the  moment  for  composition,  the  more  completely  my 
subject  gets  possession  of  me.  This,  I  think  I  may 
take  for  granted,  makes  one's  speaking  more  natural 
and  forcible,  for  it  then  becomes  the  expression  of  the 
present  thought. 

March  8. — Preached  to-day  from  a  MS.  I  had 
written  a  year  and  a  half  ago.  In  studying  it  for  the 
pulpit  I  made  great  alterations  in  it.  This  goes  some 
way  towards  proving  to  me  that  I  can  write  a  better 
sermon  now  than  I  could  then. 

3Iarch  22. — In  the  morning  I  did  badly,  though 
I  had  thought  I  had  a  good  MS.  to  preach  from. 
In  the  evening  I  did  better,  though  I  had  thought 
that  my  MS.  was  very  inferior  to  that  used  in  the 
morning.     In  speaking,  one's  powers  vary  very  much, 


68  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

in  accordance  with  the  circumstances  of  the  moment, 
though  sometimes  not  in  the  manner  one  would  have 
supposed  beforehand ;  for  one  is  often  able  to  throw 
off  completely  the  feelings  and  thoughts  which  up  to 
the  moment  of  speaking  would  obstinately  retain  pos- 
session of  the  mind. 

March  29. — I  felt  to-day  that  I  was  now  able  to 
preach  without  a  written  preparation. 

3Iay  3. — I  gave,  instead  of  a  sermon,  an  exposition 
this  afternoon.  I  became  conscious  of  difficulties  and 
faults  peculiar  to  this  form  of  discourse.  In  an  ex- 
position I  see  care  must  be  taken  to  prevent  its 
becoming  fragmentary.  The  way  in  which  the  para- 
graphs, or  the  consideration  of  the  successive  partic- 
ulars, are  connected  must  be  attended  to.  The 
repetition  of  the  same  connecting  phrases  must  be 
avoided.  Oneness  of  purpose  in  all  that  is  said,  from 
the  difficulty  of  securing  it  in  an  exposition,  ought  to 
be  kept  in  view  as  an  especial  aim. 

3Iay  10. — I  made  very  little  use  of  my  MS.  this 
morning.  It  was  almost  useless,  plainly  because  I 
had  not  attained  to  sufficiently  clear  ideas  upon  my 
subject  at  the  time  I  wrote  the  MS.  This  shows  that 
to  write  in  haste — almost,  as  is  sometimes  done, 
against  time, — it  is  not  only  to  waste  your  labor,  but 
it  is  something  still  worse;  for  it  is  doing  what  it  is 
probable   may   confuse   you,   when   you   attempt   to 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  69 

preach  what  you  wrote  without  a  proper  mastery  of 
your  subject,  or  at  inauspicious  moments. 

Ma7/  17. — The  Minister  of  the  Word  must  remem- 
ber that  to  speak  persuasively  is  an  important  part  of 
his  work.  To  have  a  large  and  attentive  congregation 
is  not  a  bad  proof,  though  of  course  not  a  conclusive 
one,  that  he  has  attained  to  this  power. 

Mai/  31. — I  found  this  morning  that  I  could  not 
interest  myself  in  my  work,  or  exert  myself;  conse- 
quently I  preached  in  a  slovenly  and  perfunctory 
manner.  I  was  rather  going  over  so  much  ground, 
than  endeavoring  to  implant  certain  ideas  and  awaken 
certain  feelings  in  the  minds  of  the  people  before  me. 

JuIt/  5. — To  look  the  congregation  in  the  face  is 
often  both  a  stimulus  to  the  speaker  and  a  guide  to 
him  in  the  treatment  of  his  subject.  It  tells  him 
whether  he  is  understood,  and  whether  he  should 
drop,  or  continue  to  dwell  a  little  longer  on  what  he 
is  speaking  about. 

Aug.  30. — I  felt  to-day  that  I  had  more  complete 
command  of  my  faculties  than  usual.  I  traced  this 
plainly  to  the  mentally  invigorating  effects  of  having 
been  travelling  about  for  the  preceding  month.  The 
great  variety  of  minds,  just  like  the  variety  of  natural 
scenes  and  objects  one  meets  with  in  travelling,  re- 
freshes and  strengthens. 

Oct.  18. — One  of  the  great  advantages  a  speaker 
has  over  a  reader,  is,  that  he  has  grasped  his  whole 


YO  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

subject,  and  sets  it  before  his  mind's  eye;  he  is  there- 
fore able,  as  he  goes  on,  to  give  its  proper  breadth 
and  color  to  each  part.  He  works  up  to  and  makes 
his  points.  The  reader  must  confine  himself  to  what 
he  has  before  him,  and  so  cannot  do  these  things. 

Nov.  8. — I  felt  something  to-day  of  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  the  people  I  was  addressing.  I  was  con- 
scious that  their  thought  and  feeling  were  aroused.  I 
seemed  to  myself  to  be  giving  expression  to  their 
thought  and  feeling.  This  ra-pport  between  the 
speaker  and  his  hearers  is  necessary.  Their  thoughts 
and  feelings  are  partly  to  be  read  in  their  faces,  and 
partly  to  be  divined.  To  keep  oneself  in  this  way  in 
sympathy  with  one's  hearers,  is  utterly  to  repudiate 
the  pestilential  idea  of  oratorical  display.  It  is  the 
substitution  of  the  thought  of  one's  audience  for  the 
thought  of  oneself. 

Nov.  15. — The  preacher  should  begin  by  planting 
his  subject  in  the  minds  of  the  congregation.  He 
should  do  this  in  such  a  way  as,  if  possible,  to  interest 
them,  and  set  them  thinking  upon  it.  They  will  then 
go  along  with  the  speaker,  and  be  more  disposed  to 
adopt  his  thoughts  and  feelings.  If  they  are  them- 
selves thinking  on  the  subject,  he  will  appear  to  be 
giving  utterance  to  their  thoughts  and  feelings. 

Dec.  25.  Christmas  Day. —  I  heard  a  young  Extem- 
porary Preacher  in  Ipswich  this  afternoon.  I  wished 
I  could  have  got  hold  of  him,  and  made  him  under- 


EXTEMPORAllY   PREACHING.  71 

stand  that  wliat  he  wanted  was  some  years  of  hard 
study,  both  thought  and  reading,  to  enable  him  to 
have  something  to  say  that  would  be  worth  hearing. 
He  is  evidently  not  aware  of  the  vast  difference  be- 
tween saying  something,  and  having  something  to 
say.  His  efforts  were  not  directed  to  any  definite 
purpose.  He  made  no  points.  His  sermon,  if  it 
could  be  so  called,  was  one  dead  level  of  religious 
common-places. 

Dec.  27. — ^While  preaching,  my  mind  now  is  never 
occupied  about  the  language  I  am  using,  further  than 
to  avoid  words  which  would  be  unintelligible  to  the 
rural  poor.  As  one's  object  is  to  be  understood,  to 
move,  and  to  persuade,  one  ought  to  be  careful  to  say 
nothing  but  what  may  be  readily  followed  and  taken 
in  by  the  present  congregation.  And  having  ceased 
to  be  occupied  with  the  language  I  use,  I  can  attend 
more  closely  to  reasoning  out  and  illustrating  the 
point  before  me. 

I  have  now  completed  the  fourth  year  of  practice  ^^• 
in  Extemporary  Preaching.  Whatever  else  might 
have  been  done  with  this  long  period  of  my  working 
life,  I  am  not  dissatisfied  with  having  devoted  it  to 
this  object.  I  say  this  as  a  Minister  of  the  Word; 
though  possibly  I  could  not,  under  any  circumstances, 
have  employed  the  time  to  better  purpose.  It  would, 
however,  have  been  far  better  had  I  begun  to  prac- 
tise speaking  in  public  twenty  years  earlier. 


72  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

Throughout  this  year  there  arc  no  entries  of  dis- 
content at  slowness  of  progress,  but  there  are  some  of 
an  opposite  character. 

I  find  in  this  year  the  following  entries  without 
date : — 

There  are  three  kinds  of  material  for  Extemporary 
Speaking — Reasoning,  Feeling,  and  Imagination. 
The  first  care  of  the  Extemporary  Preacher  must  be 
to  have  each  of  these  at  command.  In  the  next  place, 
he  must  be  able  to  clothe  in  appropriate  language 
what  each  supplies.  Lastly,  he  must  have  judgment 
to  know  when  to  use  and  how  much  to  use  of  each. 
These  three  materials  of  speaking  must  be  used  as 
different  colored  threads  would  be  used  in  a  cloth  of 
fair  design.  Each  must  always  be  in  hand  for  use, 
ready  to  be  taken  up  and  laid  down  as  required. 
Sometimes  the  three  will  be  used  in  the  same  para- 
graph. Sometimes,  Keasoning,  Feeling,  or  Imagi- 
nation will  be  indicated  in  the  use  of  a  single  word. 

One  of  the  great  advantages  of  Extemporary 
Preaching  is  that  it  obliges  the  preacher  to  under- 
stand to  some  extent  what  he  is  speaking  about. 
"What  he  understands,  there  is  some  prospect  of  his 
being  able  to  make  intelligible  to  his  congregation. 

The  matter  of  what  a  man  says  cannot  be  better 
than  his  knowledge  and  his  logic.  This  is  why  the 
ordinary  run  of  popular  preachers  have  no  weight  at 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  73 

all  in   the   world.     They  must   improve  their   logic, 
and  increase  their  knowledge. 

1858.  Jan.  10. — I  was  very  much  dissatisfied  12. 
with  myself  tliis  afternoon.  I  did  badly  because  I  had 
not  clearly  made  out  to  myself  beforehand  a  part  of 
my  argument. 

Feb.  14. — Lately  I  have  found  myself  so  entirely 
absorbed  by  my  subject  as  to  forget  the  presence  of 
my  hearers.  This  is  a  mistake  and  must  be  guarded 
against.  The  speaker  ought  never  to  lose  sight  of 
the  way  in  which  his  audience  is  regarding  his  sub- 
ject, and  what  he  is  saying  of  it. 

Ajyril  18. — For  the  first  time  I  used  a  MS.  from 
which  I  had  already  preached.  It  was  one  that  had 
been  written  and  used  at  the  beginning  of  1854.  I 
find  that  I  have  very  much  advanced  beyond  what  I 
was  then  capable  of  doing.  The  old  MS.  proved 
almost  useless.  I  recast  the  whole  of  it.  Nothing 
of  the  kind  would  have  been  done  under  the  system 
of  reading.  I  should  not  have  outgrown  a  MS.  in 
four  years ;  or,  if  I  had,  I  should  hardly  have 
noticed  it,  when  nothing  was  to  be  done  but  read 
what  was  already  prepared.  The  having  to  master, 
and  construct  in  the  mind  what  was  to  be  said, 
showed  that  something  better  could  now  be  done  than 
had  been  done  in  185-4. 

Mai/  9. — I  still  have  nearly  one  hundred  unused 
MSS.,  but   used   to-day,   instead  of  taking   two    of 


74  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

these,  two  that  I  had  written  and  used  four  years 
ago.  This  is  good  practice,  to  discover  faults,  and 
correct  them;  and,  in  consequence  of  having  in- 
creased and  more  digested  one's  knowledge  and 
enlarged  one's  experience  of  what  is  required  in 
preaching,  to  remodel  an  old  MS.  This  accustoms 
one  never  to  use  one's  materials  without  thought  and 
understanding. 

July  18. — I  find  that  in  preaching  there  is  always 
a  great  difference  hetween  my  way  of  treating  the 
beginning  and  my  way  of  treating  the  latter  part  of 
a  sermon.  At  first  I  am  always  more  diffuse  than  I 
am  towards  the  close.  This  difference  probably  arises 
from  a  difference  in  the  matter.  The  beginning  of  a 
sermon  is  generally  explanatory;  and  explanations 
admit  of  and  almost  invite  diffuseness.  The  latter 
part,  however,  consists  generally  of  application  and 
exhortation.  Diffuseness  here  would  mean  dilution 
and  weakness.  I  also  find  that  diffuseness  is  far 
easier  than  conciseness.  Diffuseness  does  not  con- 
fuse the  speaker,  though  it  may  the  hearer.  The  at- 
tempt at  conciseness  has  a  tendency  to  confuse  the 
speaker.  A  well-executed  conciseness  is  a  great 
help,  and  very  pleasing  to  the  hearer. 

Sept.  12. — I  preached  this  morning  for  the  first 
time  from  a  sketch  drawn  out  on  one  side  of  half  a 
sheet  of  note-paper.  I  had  sufficiently  studied  the 
subject  in  my  mind. 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  75 

Oct.  10. — I  did  badly  this  morning,  because  I  had 
not  made  out  my  subject  distinctly  to  myself.  De- 
fective power  of  speaking,  and  insufficient  study  of 
what  one  is  to  speak  about,  are  two  very  diiferent 
things. 

Oct.  24. — My  powers  of  extemporary  thought  are 
much  enlarged.  At  first,  my  memory  was  chiefly 
exercised.  Then,  language  occupied  me  much  while 
speaking.  Now,  neither  memory  nor  language  occupy 
me  much.  My  mind  is  chiefly  occupied  with  seeking 
for  arguments  and  illustrations,  and  arranging  what 
I  have  to  say.  My  practice  in  Extemporary  Preach- 
ing has  convinced  me  of  the  duality  of  the  mind — or 
rather  that  the  mind  is  capable  of  doing  two  things  at 
the  same  moment.  While  I  am  speaking, — which  is 
one  operation,  for  it  is  the  clothing  of  thought  in  lan- 
guage,— I  am  always  thinking  of  what  is  coming, 
sometimes  very  intently ;  or  of  the  congregation,  of 
how  they  will  understand  and  receive  what  I  am 
saying.  Whether  these  two  operations  are  performed 
simultaneously  by  the  same  organ,  or  by  two  distinct 
yet  connected  organs,  like  the  two  eyes,  or  the  two 
ears,  is  a  question  which  I  suppose  admits  of  dis- 
cussion. If  the  two  organs  are  distinct,  they  may  be 
so  in  the  fashion  of  the  two  hands  or  the  two  feet, 
which  are  capable  of  acting  simultaneously  either  for 
a  conjoint  purpose,  or  each  for  a  separate  purpose  of 


76  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

its  own.     Or  the  rapidity  of  thought  may  be  so  great 
as  to  dispense  apparently  Avith  time,  and  thus  to  pre- 
clude the   thinker  from    distinguishing   between   the 
laying  down    of   one  subject  and  the  taking  up  of 
another.     The  attention  given  to  the  two  subjects  may 
in  reality  be  not  simultaneous,  but  consecutive ;    we 
may,  however,  be  incapable  of  observing  the  consecu- 
tiveness  of  the  second  act  of  attention  to  the  first. 
I  would  illustrate  this  supposition  by  the  familiar  in- 
stance of  a  long  and  eventful  dream  being  comprised 
in  the  instantaneous  act  of  waking,  when  a  noise  or  a 
word  has  been  the  cause  of  the  sleeper's  having  been 
aroused,  and  his  whole  dream  was  suggested  by  the 
very  noise  or  word  that  awoke  him. 

Dec.  26. — I  have  frequently  of  late  preached  with- 
out any  written  study,  except  a  few  headings  set  down 
in  a  few  lines. 

I  close  this  year  with  the  entry,  that  1  believe  I 
have  during  the  year  improved  in  preaching,  but  that 
I  can  hardly  say  that  I  have  made  any  approaches 
towards  my  ideal  of  a  preacher.  My  imaginative 
powers  generally  appear  to  me  to  be  paralyzed  when 
I  am  in  the  pulpit.  My  reasoning  powers  are  not  af- 
fected in  this  way. 

13.  1859. — 1  had  now  entirely  ceased  to  write  sermons 
in  extenso.  Seven  years  have  since  passed,  and  during 
that  time  I  have  never  had  occasion  to  do  more  than 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  77 

set  down  a  few  short  notes,  that  I  might  be  able  to 
judge  of  the  plan  of  what  I  was  about  to  say;  and 
that  no  part  of  it, — as  must  sometimes  be  the  case  if 
no  memoranda  arc  made, — might  slip  out  of  my  mind, 
and  be  lost. 


CHAPTER  III. 


SOME   REMARKS   OX  THE   COMPOSITION    OF  SERMONS. 


1.  Com- 
position of 
sermons — 
their  eflfec- 
tiveness 
depends 
upon  it. 


1  NOW  proceed  to  say  something  on  a 
subject  to  which  passing  references  have 
frequently  been  made  in  the  foregoing 
pages — that  of  the  Composition  of  Ser- 
mons. Upon  this  depends  not  only  the 
effectiveness  of  sermons,  but  also  the  very  power  of 
preaching  them  effectively.  This  is  true  of  them  even 
when  addressed  to  the  ignorant  and  uncultivated,  who 
are  more  impressed  by  what  they  hear,  understand  it 
more  readily,  and  are  able  to  carry  more  of  it  away 
when  the  plain  natural  rules  of  composition  are 
observed. 


2.  They 
must,  first 
of  all.  be 
vertebrate 
composi- 
tions. 


The  first  and  most   essential  principle 

is,  that    a  sermon   must  be  a   vertebrate 

composition.      It  must  have  a  vertebral 

column — a  back-bone.      When   this   has 

been  secured,  other  things  may  be  attended  to;   and 

just  as  the  higher  vertebrate  animals  have  appendages 

in  the  shape  of  limbs,  so  may  this  vertebrate  composi- 

78 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACniNQ.  79 

tiou — a  sermon — be  the  better  for  an  appendage  or 
two.  You  may  depart  occasionally  from  the  direct 
line  of  the  column  of  construction  to  append  here  what 
may  serve  as  a  leg,  to  give  the  body  of  the  discourse 
as  it  were  a  little  movement,  and  here  what  may  serve 
as  an  arm,  to  smite  the  wrong-doer,  or  to  raise  the 
distressed  in  mind,  body,  or  estate.  But  these  must 
grow  naturally  from  it,  and  their  use  must  be  obvious. 
They  will  give  to  what  is  being  said  motion  and  action ; 
but  the  vertebral  column  itself  is  the  body  and  sub- 
stance of  the  sermon:  these  additions  are  the  means 
it  uses  for  effecting  its  immediate  objects. 

Sometimes  we  hear  of  a  speaker  having  lost  the 
thread  of  his  discourse;  sometimes  also  we  hear  an 
Extemporary  Preacher  accused  of  having  repeated 
himself.  Here  we  have  an  accident  and  a  fault,  both 
of  which  may  be  avoided  by  the  observance  of  the  rule 
I  have  just  laid  down;  for  if  his  sermon  be  so  com- 
posed, the  preacher  must  begin  at  the  beginning  and 
go  on  to  the  end.  "What  he  has  to  say  will  then  not 
admit  of  his  doubling  back.  He  will  always  know 
just  where  he  is,  what  he  has  said,  and  what  he  has 
still  to  say. 

But  speakinor  in  this  way  of  the  compo-       ^-    To  be 

regarded  as 

sition  of  sermons,  suggests  the  objection    works  of 
that  it  w^ould  give  them  an  artificial  cha-    high  order 
racter.      AYe   must    distinguish    between 
what  has  an  artificial  character  and  what  is  a  work  of 


80  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHI.XG. 

art,  which  every  sermon  ought  to  be,  in  the  sense  in 
which  the  building  itself  in  v>'hich  the  sermon  is  de- 
livered is,  or  a  statue,  or  a  picture.  Indeed,  there 
is  a  sense  in  which  the  vforks  of  nature,  as  for  instance, 
the  terrestrial  landscape,  the  starry  firmament,  a  flower, 
a  leaf,  a  tree,  an  animal,  the  human  face,  the  human 
figure,  .are,  just  like  the  works  of  man,  works  of  art, 
although  the  terms  are  commonly  used  in  opposition 
to  each  other.  The  diiterence  between  them  is,  that 
the  latter  are  the  works  of  a  human,  and  the  former 
of  a  Divine  Artist.  What  brings  any  thing  under 
this  category,  is,  that  it  is  conceived  and  executed 
with  reference  to  certain  principles  of  proportion, 
contrast,  form,  color,  and  greater  or  less  prominence 
of  certain  parts.  Conformity  in  each  instance  to  the 
principles  which  that  particular  kind  of  work  requires, 
makes  the  thing  done  suitable  for  its  purpose,  and  also 
makes  it  a  work  of  art.  All  this  applies  strictly  to 
sermons,  which,  as  they  are  addressed  to  the  under- 
standing and  feelings,  do  in  truth  occupy  a  very  high 
place  among  works  of  art. 
4.  Must  But  I  proceed  with  the  remarks  I  have 

have  unity 

of  purpose,  to  make  on  their  composition.  No  great 
effect  can  be  produced  on  the  mind  and  feelings  by 
what  is  confused  and  indistinct,  and  wanting  in 
directness  and  intelligibility.  A  man  who  is  un- 
acquainted with,  or  careless  about  what  are  the  rules 
of  art  belonging  to  this  subject,  will  sometimes  begin 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  81 

an  argument  and  then  interrupt  himself  with  some 
irrelevant  considerations.  An  incomplete  argument, 
or  an  argument  thus  broken  into  pieces,  cannot  have 
so  much  force  as  it  would  have  had  if  it  had  been 
managed  in  a  more  workmanlike  manner.  An  anal- 
ogous  fault,  equally  or  even  more  inartistic,  is  to  in- 
troduce any  thing  that  will  produce  a  different  effect 
from  that  at  which  the  preacher  is  or  should  be 
aiming,  either  as  the  object  of  his  whole  sermon  or  of 
that  particular  part  of  it  where  the  discordant  thought 
or  feeling  is  suggested.  He  ought  not  to  use  so  much 
as  a  word  which  would  divert  the  attention  of  his  con- 
gregation from  his  object,  by  suggesting  an  irrelevant 
or  superfluous  idea.  All  the  powers  of  thought  and 
feeling  both  in  himself  and  in  his  audience,  should  be 
made  to  converge  on  the  present  object.  This  is  what 
we  do  in  conversation.  A  preacher  who  understands 
how  his  purpose  is  to  be  effected  will  do  the  same  in 
the  pulpit.  Matter  and  words  that  are  irrelevant  or 
superfluous  are  objectionable  in  a  sermon  for  the  same 
reasons  for  which  any  thing  of  the  same  description 
would  be  objectionable  in  a  poem,  statue,  picture,  or 
any  other  work  of  art.  The  difference  is,  that  in  such 
a  work  as  a  picture  or  statue,  the  whole  being  taken 
in  by  the  eye  at  a  glance,  if  there  be  any  thing  irrele- 
vant or  superfluous,  it  is  detected  instantly ;  but  a 
sermon,  before  judgment  can  be  passed  on  it,  requires 
half  an  hour's  attention  and  a  knowledge  of  what  is 


82  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

really  beside  its  purpose  and  aim.  This  implies  in 
the  hearer  an  amount  of  knowledge  which  many  per- 
sons do  not  possess,  and  an  amount  of  attention  which 
few  persons  are  disposed  to  give.  Such  people  will 
generally  allow  to  pass  unnoticed  much  that  may  be 
at  discord  with  and  destructive  of  the  effect  the  ser- 
mon should  have  been  intended  to  produce.  Still, 
even  in  their  cases,  the  effectiveness  of  a  sermon 
would  be  very  much  increased  by  a  diminution  of 
these  faults. 
5.  What  Another  objection,  besides  that  which 

better  in  '^ 

sermons  mistakes   conformity  to  the  rules  of  art 

than  na-  •/.    •   i      -i 

tural  elo-  for  an  artificial  character,  may  be  made 
quence.  ^^  ^l^^  more  measured  and  reasoned  kind 

of  speaking  which  may  be  expected  from  the  adoption 
of  my  recommendations  as  to  regular  study  and  careful 
composition  previous  to  delivery :  it  may  be  said  this 
cannot  produce  any  thing  at  all  resembling  true 
natural  eloquence.  But  may  it  not  produce  some- 
thing much  better,  and  much  more  suited  to  the  pul- 
pit ?  We  can  imagine  what  would  be  the  effect  on 
the  mind,  of  hearing  twice  every  Sunday,  for  half  an 
hour  at  a  time,  bursts  of  true  natural  eloquence.  It 
would  become  tedious,  perhaps  insufferable.  Ac- 
curacy and  variety  of  knowledge,  and  thoughtfulness 
in  the  man  one  has  to  hear  so  frequently,  are  better 
than  what  is  meant  by  true  natural  eloquence,  which 
is  generally  accompanied  with  more  or  less  of  ignc- 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  83 

rancc,  with  'svant  of  balance,  want  of  breadth  of  view 
and  of  profundity,  and  of  connectedness  and  of  dis- 
tinctness of  object.     These  are  excellences  which  can 
be  attained  only  by  patient  thought  and  study. 
In  sermon-writino;  and  preachinc;  a  ques-       6.  Re- 

,  ^  °      ^  spective 

tion  sometimes  arises,  as  to  the  most  ap-    claims  of  or- 

*     •    •      1  dinary 

propriate  language.     As  it  is  the  somewhat    phraseology 

T     .        1  X  r*   .r       1  f  and  that  of 

archaic  character  oi  the  language  ot  our  ^^^^  English 
Enghsh  Bible  and  of  our  Book  of  Common  ^^^^^• 
Prayer  which  gives  rise  to  this  question,  it  is  evident 
that  whatever  difficulties  it  contains  are  peculiar  among 
public  speakers  to  the  preacher.  Some  would  solve 
the  question  by  cutting  the  knot.  They  say,  "Archaic 
language  is  unfit  for  the  purposes  of  the  preacher,  as 
it  would  be  for  the  purposes  of  any  other  speaker. 
Speakers,  of  whatever  kind  they  may  be,  should  use 
the  language  of  the  day — it  must  be  the  language 
which  is  most  readily  understood;  and  to  be  readily 
understood  is  the  object  of  all  speakers."  These  per- 
sons mean  that  they  would  have  the  language  of  our 
English  Bible  and  Book  of  Common  Prayer  dropped 
in  the  pulpit,  and  the  language  of  the  literature  of  the 
day  adopted  in  its  place.  This  solution,  however,  of 
the  question  is  dictated  rather  by  an  exaggeration  of 
the  common-sense  view  of  the  matter,  than  by  consi- 
derations of  good  taste,  or  of  what  would  produce  the 
best  effect  on  the  minds  of  the  congregation.  An 
instance  will  perhaps  show  this  better  than  an  argu- 


84  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

ment.  A  preacher  who  some  years  ago  was  of  some 
note  in  a  country  town  where  he  held  a  benefice,  but 
was  afterwards  the  minister  of  a  more  critical  congre- 
gation elsewhere,  agreed  with  those  whose  opinion  I 
have  just  quoted;  and  once  gave  (it  was  his  ordinary 
style  of  language)  the  following  illustration  of  the 
practice  of  using  modern  phraseology  in  sermons. 
His  subject  was,  "The  Children  of  Light,"  and  his 
object  at  the  moment  was  to  convey  the  idea  that  they 
are  the  recipients  of  light.  With  this  in  view  he  said, 
"  Brethren,  to  use  a  philosophic  "  (he  meant  a  scientific) 
"term,  you  are  photogenic."  The  word  was  taken 
from  the  walls  of  a  lucifer-match  manufactory  in  Mile 
End,  which  is  seen  from  the  Great  Eastern  Railway ; 
where,  however,  whether  correctly  or  not,  it  means 
exactly  the  reverse  of  what  the  preacher  supposed, 
being  applied  there  to  the  production,  not  the  reception 
of  light.  It  is  obvious  that  the  use  in  the  pulpit  of 
such  fire-new,  and  would-be  scientific,  terms  as  the 
above,  even  when  applied  with  perfect  correctness,  can 
only  be  justified  by  necessity.  They  jar  too  much  on 
the  ears  of  educated  hearers.  If  the  object  be  to  con- 
nect the  pulpit  as  closely  as  possible  with  the  facts  and 
thoughts  of  the  present  day,  the  object  is  a  most  proper 
one;  and  the  means  for  doing  this  which  language 
supplies  are  not  to  be  neglected;  but  excess  is  possi- 
ble in  the  use  of  these  means,  as  in  most  other  things, 
and  ought  to  be  guarded  against. 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  85 

The  opposite  extreme,  that  of  the  preacher  con-  7. 
fining  himself  exclusively  to  the  language  of  our  English 
Bible,  is  also  to  be  avoided.  The  effect  of  this  is  to 
take  the  hearer  out  of  the  living  realities  of  tlie  actual 
world,  and  to  transport  him  to  a  region  of  shadows ; 
for  such  are  words  and  phrases  which  are  no  longer  in 
common  use:  life  has  departed  from  them.  The  dis- 
crepancy between  ordinary  language  and  that  of  the 
Authorized  Version  is  rapidly  increasing;  the  time 
therefore  cannot  be  very  distant  when  the  bad  effect 
of  preaching  in  the  language  of  the  latter  will  be  gen- 
erally obvious.  In  the  mean  time,  judgment,  good 
taste,  and  a  common-sense  view  of  the  requirements 
of  what  we  have  to  speak  about,  must  determine  for 
the  preacher  in  what  way  he  can  most  effectively  ex- 
press his  meaning.  Some  when  wishing  to  inculcate 
the  practice  of  "every  virtue"  would  urge  the  hearer 
in  Biblical  phrase  "  to  fulfil  all  righteousness."  Some- 
thing may  be  objected  to  either  phrase — at  all  events 
it  may  be  said  of  the  latter  that  the  idea  it  calls  up  is 
faint,  and  not  precisely  what  the  preacher  wishes  to 
convey.  One  might  hesitate  between  the  Holy  Spirit 
and  Holy  Ghost,  feeling  that  the  latter  name  is  be^ 
coming  obsolete,  and  that  the  former  awakens  more 
thought,  because  to  our  ears  more  instinct  with  mean- 
ing. Trespasses  and  transgressions  are  words  which 
have  almost  ceased  to  appeal  to  the  conscience. 
8 


86  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

Naughtiness  is  no  longer  applied  to  the  delinquencies 
of  grown-up  persons. 

8.  But  that  multitudes  of  Biblical  words  and 
phrases  are  thus  more  or  less  obsolete  is  not  all ;  there 
is  also  the  fact  that  a  great  deal  of  what  the  preacher 
has  to  say  cannot  be  expressed  at  all,  or  only  very  im- 
perfectly, in  Biblical  phraseology.  One  almost  shrinks 
from  mentioning  in  the  pulpit  any  place — as,  for 
instance,  Paris  or  New  York — the  name  of  which  does 
not  occur  in  the  Bible :  but  this  is  false  taste,  and  is 
wrong. 

9-  Our  rule  then  should  be  to  say  whatever  ought 
to  be  said,  on  every  subject  that  comes  before  us  in  the 
Ministry  of  the  Word,  in  the  most  distinct,  direct,  and 
intelligible  way;  not  fearing  to  use  modern  phrase- 
ology, if  it  will  bring  our  meaning  more  forcibly  home 
to  the  understandings  of  our  congregations  than 
Biblical  phraseology  would.  But  at  the  same  time  we 
need  not  avoid,  I  would  rather  say  we  ought  to  prefer. 
Biblical  phraseology  wherever  it  can  be  used  without 
detriment  to  the  effectiveness  of  what  we  are  desirous 
of  saying.  Its  use  will  have  this  advantage,  that  it 
will  contribute  to  invest  our  discourse  with  something 
of  a  sacred  character  by  connecting  it  with  the  source 
from  whence  it  derives  its  inspiration.  While,  however, 
we  do  this,  we  must  be  careful  not  to  do  it  to  such  an 
extent  as  to  invest  our  discourse  with  an  unreal  and 
conventional  character,  as  if  it  were  all  about  matters 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  87 

that  men  had  ceased  to  think  or  to  talk  about;  for  if 
we  do  not  speak  in  the  language  in  which  men  think, 
what  we  say  will  not  come  home  to  their  understand- 
ings or  their  feelings. 

The  two  most  important,  and  at  the       ^^-  Open- 
ings of  ser- 
same  time  the  most  difficult,  sentences  in    mons  will 

r\n    generally 

a  sermon  are  the  first  and  the  last.  Of  becom- 
these  the  last  is  the  more  difficult  of  the  ^^^^ 
two.  The  first  will  frequently  supply  the  key-note  to 
all  that  is  to  follow;  while  it  suggests  the  object  of 
the  discourse,  or  brings  at  once  into  prominency  some 
fact  or  thought  which  is  material  to  the  Preacher's 
purpose,  and  which  he  therefore  desires  that  the  con- 
gregation should  bear  in  mind.  The  sentence  that  is 
to  do  this  in  the  most  appropriate  manner  for  the 
whole  of  what  is  to  follow,  can  seldom  be  hit  upon 
when  one  first  sits  down  to  write  a  sermon ;  but  it  will 
always  readily  present  itself  to  the  mind  when  the 
whole  subject  has  been  completely  grasped,  and  not 
only  its  aim,  but  the  way  in  which  each  part  contributes 
to  that  aim,  distinctly  made  out.  "When  all  this  stands 
clearly  and  palpably  before  the  mind's  eye,  the  point 
from  which  the  preacher  is  to  start  will  suggest  itself. 
This  is  so  certainly  the  spontaneous  result  of  knowing 
what  one  is  about,  and  has  to  do,  that  in  Extemporary 
Preaching  the  beginning  of  a  sermon  may  generally  be 
left  to  the  moment  of  delivery.  In  actual  composition, 
therefore,  the  first  paragraph  will  generally  be  most 


OO  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

to  the  purpose  if  written  last,  because  it  is  properlj 

the  result  of  Vv'hat  all  the  rest  happens  to  be.     The 

preacher  will  know  the  precise  point  from  which  he  is 

to  set  out  when  he  knows  the  exact  point  he  is  to  make 

for,  and  the  ground  he  is  to  go  over. 

11.  Further        Acrain,  it  is  by  no  means  an  invariable 
remarks  on  *^ 

the  opening     rule  that  the  preacher  should  begin  bj 

sentence. 

stating  his  subject,  because  if  the  subject 
be  of  such  a  nature  that  the  congregation  will  not 
readily  understand  or  accept  it,  it  is  obvious  that  it  may 
be  better  to  introduce  the  announcement  of  it  with 
some  argument,  or  statement,  or  illustration,  that  will 
lead  on  to  it,  and  dispose  the  congregation  to  accept  it. 
12.  Con-  The  conclusion,  however,  of  a  sermon  is 

eluding  sen- 
tence diffi-       perhaps    of   greater    importance    and    of 
cult,  and  of  i-m      i  -r  ■, 

different         greater  difliculty.      its  purpose   may  be 

kinds.  '.1         J.  •  • 

either  to  sum  up  m  an  impressive  manner 
what  has  gone  before,  which  must  be  done  by  recalling 
as  much  of  it  as  can  be  recalled  in  a  few  short  sen- 
tences; or  to  state  forcibly  the  conclusion  of  the 
whole ;  or  to  bring  all  that  has  been  said  to  bear  on 
the  reason  and  conscience  of  the  hearer.  It  might 
appear  that  it  must  be  easy  enough  to  conclude,  be- 
cause when  a  speaker  has  said  all  that  he  has  to  say 
upon  a  subject,  then  he  has  arrived  at  the  natural  end 
of  the  matter.  It  is  not  so,  however,  with  a  sermon. 
If  one  were  writing  a  disquisition,  or  an  essay,  that 
would  generally  be  sufficient;  but  the   preacher  has 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  89 

furthermore  to  make  the  treatment  of  his  subject  im- 
pressive ;  he  has  to  put  it  in  such  a  way  that  it  shall 
not  only  convince  the  reason,  but  also  interest  the 
feelings  of  the  congregation.  He  has  to  leave 
an  impression — to  interest — to  move — to  persuade. 
Hence  arises  the  difficulty  of  concluding  in  a  satis- 
factory manner,  for  it  is  no  easy  thing  that  has  to  be 
done,  and  it  has  to  be  done  in  a  few  words ;  and  the 
feeling  will  often  be  left  on  the  preacher's  mind  that 
the  effect  of  his  sermon  was  short  of  what  it  might 
have  been  had  there  been  more  concentration  and 
power  in  his  conclusion. 

Several  of  Bishop  Butler's  celebrated  fifteen  l^- 
sermons  conclude  with  some  Scripture  which  more  or 
less  embodies  his  general  aim,  or  recalls  his  argument. 
This  method  has  great  advantages.  It  is  as  it  were  a 
summary  of  one's  own  sermon  in  the  authoritative 
language  of  the  Word  of  God.  The  mind  receives  it 
as  a  strongly  corroborative  argument,  which  produces 
this  effect  without  its  having  been  directly  used,  or 
stated  as  an  argument. 

Many  of  our  Lord's  parables  conclude  with  in-  I-*- 
stances  of  the  most  wonderful  condensation  combined 
with  exhortation — for  example,  those  of  the  Good 
Samaritan,  the  Pharisee  and  publican,  the  unjust 
steward,  the  unforgiving  servant,  the  wise  and  foolish 
virgins,  kc.  It  will  not  often  perhaps  happen  that 
such  terminations  as  these  would  be  suitable  to  our 


90  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

sermons,  still  it  -would  be  of  use  to  the  preacher  to 
regard  them  as  perfect  models  which  may  occasionally 
be  imitated. 

15.  What  [But  -whatever  be  the  form  of  conclusion 

to  be  avoid- 
ed in  con-       whicli  a  sermon  may  require,  nothing  can 

elusions.  /»  .     .  T  11  .  1^       rr 

be  more  irigid  and  destructive  or  eiiect 
than  the  announcement  so  frequently  heard,  that  it  is 
the  conclusion.  The  "In  conclusion,"  or  "Now  to 
conclude,"  or  "Finally,"  appears  generally  to  bring  a 
feeling  of  relief  both  to  the  Minister  and  to  the  con- 
gregation ;  although  they  are  sometimes  put  in  such  a 
way  as  to  imply  that  it  is  time  alone  which  is  obliging 
the  preacher  to  end  his  discourse.  The  effect  of  this 
is  very  bad. 

16.  Uni-  In  his  commencements  and  terminations, 

formity  of 

plan  to  be  and  the  whole  construction  of  his  sermons, 
avoided.  •  i    r»  it 

How.  the  preacher  must  caret ully  avoid  falling 

ment  of    '      ^^*^  *^^®  habitual  use  of  any  single  plan. 

bl^ivoTd'ed"     ^^^^T  Sunday,  and    this   for  year   after 

year,  he  has  to  preach  two  sermons;  how 

insufferably  tedious  then  will  it  prove  to  his  auditors, 

if  all  his  sermons  should  be  constructed  alike.     This 

cannot  be  the  case  if  his  plan  is  always  taken  from  his 

subject.      If  this  be  done,  the  requisite  amount  of 

variety  in  treatment  will  be  secured.  •    The  caution 

now  being  given  is  by  no  means  unnecessary,  for  one 

form  of  the  fault  is,  at  all  events,  very  common,  that 

of  dividing  the  subject.      Many  preachers   seem  to 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  91 

think  that  in  a  sermon  this  is  a  necessity;  accordingly 
every  sermon  they  preach  is  divided.  You  will  hear 
again  and  again  in  sermon  after  sermon — "This  text 
has  three,"  or,  it  may  be,  "half-a-dozen  points." 
Then  they  are  enunciated  and  numbered.  This  is 
followed  by  the  separate  treatment  of  each.  The 
irksomeness  of  composing  and  preaching  such  sermons 
must  be  very  great,  though  as  they  are  the  preacher's 
own  work  he  may  be  somewhat  blind  to  their  dulness ; 
but  he  ought  to  consider  what  must  be  the  effect  of 
two  sermons  of  this  kind  every  Sunday  year  after  year 
on  the  minds  of  educated,  and  even  of  uneducated, 
people.  It  will  often  be  the  case  that  a  text  contains 
two  or  three  statements  or  particulars,  and  it  may  be 
necessary  for  the  preacher  to  bear  this  in  mind  in 
treating  his  subject,  and  to  take  them  separately;  and 
when  he  has  done  with  the  consideration  of  the  first, 
to  mark  the  transition  to  the  next  in  some  way,  as  for 
instance  by  saying,  "We  now  pass  to  the  considera- 
tion of  another  point  our  text  contains,"  or  something 
of  this  kind,  and  so  on  with  the  rest:  but  it  can  very 
rarely  happen  that  there  is  any  necessity  at  the  com- 
mencement of  an  address  of  half  an  hour's  duration  to 
enunciate  the  divisions  of  the  subject.  They  may, 
without  the  preacher's  doing  this,  be  marked  distinctly 
enough,  if  requisite,  in  the  treatment  of  the  subject. 
The  first  moments  of  your  address,  when  you  are 
always  listened  to  attentively,  may  be  much  belter 


92  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

employed.  The  old  joke  against  this  style  of  preach- 
ing, that  there  is  in  it  a  great  deal  of  carving,  but 
very  little  meat,  is  far  from  being  all  that  can  be  said 
against  it.  Its  sameness,  its  departure  from  the  na- 
tural method  of  treating  a  subject,  the  inevitable 
unmeaningness  of  many  divisions  of  this  kind,  present 
a  combination  of  faults  that  is  quite  insufferable. 
17.  Repe-        A  fault  that  is  very  common,  but  not  so 

tition  of  .  •        1  f>     1. 

ideas  to  be  obvious  as  it  IS  common,  is  that  oi  the 
repetition  of  ideas.  One  who  sits  down 
to  write  without  knowing  distinctly  what  he  is  going 
to  aim  at,  or  the  path  by  which  he  is  to  reach  his  aim, 
is  constantly  liable  to  fall  into  the  fault  of  reproducing 
the  same  thoughts  in  different  words.  Sermons  of  this 
kind  are  very  wearisome,  without  the  hearer  being 
always  able  to  point  out  the  cause,  for  it  generally 
happens  that  one  requires,  in  order  to  discover  what  is 
amiss  in  such  sermons,  more  than  is  possessed  by  most 
men  of  the  power  of  analyzing  and  arranging  ideas. 
This  kind  of  repetition,  from  its  very  nature,  is  more 
likely  to  be  found  in  written  than  in  Extemporary  Ser- 
mons, for  in  the  latter  a  proper  grasp  of  the  subject 
must  be  taken,  and  therefore  in  its  treatment  an  ad- 
vance will  be  made  by  distinct  steps  to  a  distinct  end. 
There  are  some  whose  sermons  are  rather  an  array  of 
Texts  connected  in  some  way  or  other  with  their  sub- 
ject, than  a  discourse  upon  or  a  proper  treatment  of 
their  subject.     Their  practice  is  a  very  simple  one. 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  93 

It  is  to  collect  these  Texts,  and  then  to  enlarge  upon 
them  seriatim.  This  is  what  South  tells  us  the  Puri- 
tans of  his  day  called  "a  saving  way  of  Preaching." 
His  OAvn  comment  on  this  description  of  their  style 
being,  ''  that  he  knew  nothing  it  saved,  except  the 
time  and  thought  of  the  Preacher."  In  this  method 
repetition  of  ideas  is  unavoidable. 

Exhortation  is    a   necessary  part  of  a       l^-  Exhor- 
tation ne- 
sermon,  because  the  object  of  preaching    cessary— in 

.  1  Ti        A  11         what  it 

is  to  mnuence  the  will.  Arguments  and  de-  consists. 
monstrations  only  affect  the  reason  and  the  understand- 
ing. And  though  the  reason  may  be  thoroughly  con- 
vinced, the  preacher's  work  is  only  done  in  part.  He 
aims  at  convincing  the  reason  with  the  ulterior  view 
of  regarding  such  convictions  as  levers  by  which  he 
hopes  to  move  the  will.  He  has  then  to  consider  how 
this  leverage  is  to  be  brought  to  bear.  It  can  only  be 
done  by  showing  that  what  has  been  proved  and 
established  is  advantageous  or  disadvantageous  to  the 
hearer.  And  this  can  only  be  done  by  addressing  the 
feelings  and  sentiments  of  the  congregation ;  that  is, 
by  appealing  to  their  moral  sense,  to  their  religious 
sentiments,  to  enlightened  self-love,  to  their  approval 
of  what  is  just,  and  true,  and  noble,  and  lovable,  to 
their  hopes  and  fears,  to  their  desires  and  affections. 
The  attempt  in  these  ways  to  awaken  emotion  in  the 
congregation,  and  so  to  lead  it  to  accept  or  reject  what 
reasoning  has  demonstrated,  is  properly  exhortation. 


9i  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

It  is  an  appeal  to  their  feelings  on  the  subject  before 
them.  It  is  absurd  to  object  to  these  appeals  to  the 
feelings,  for  if  they  are  not  to  be  made,  then  there 
can  be  no  such  thing  as  exhortation ;  and  then  there 
can  be  no  such  thing  as  influencing  the  will:  for 
reasoning,  as  a  general  rule,  cannot  do  it.  The  will 
is  reached,  as  nature  seems  to  have  intended,  through 
the  feelings.  The  demonstration  of  one  of  Euclid's 
problems  convinces  the  understanding,  but,  as  this  is 
not  a  subject  about  which  the  feelings  can  be  inter- 
ested, the  matter  ends  when  the  proof  is  understood: 
the  will  can  be  in  no  way  aflfected  by  that  proof.  So 
you  may  demonstrate  the  statements  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  Light  of  the  world,  and  the  Saviour  of  the 
world,  but  you  will  have  done  little,  as  a  preacher, 
till  by  making  men  feel  that  it  is  for  their  advantage 
to  receive  Him  in  these  capacities,  you  shall  have 
brouo^ht  them  to  wish  so  to  receive  Him.  To  do  this 
you  must  appeal  to  their  sense  of  sin,  to  their  desire 
to  be  at  peace  with  God,  to  their  gratitude,  to  their 
natural  approval  of  all  that  is  pure  and  holy,  and  to 
any  other  feelings  by  which  you  may  hope  to  draw 
them  to  desire  what  you  have  proved.  These  appeals 
are  exhortations. 

19.  Light  The  preacher  who  attends  to  what  he 

and  shade 

necessary.  is  about  will  often  be  reminaed  by  his  own 
preaching,  as  well  as  by  what  he  hears  from  others, 
that  a  sermon  requires  both  light  and  shade.     It  is  a 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  95 

great  fault  when  every  thing  from  first  to  last  is  kept 
at  one  uniform  level.  This,  indeed,  goes  some  way 
towards  making  what  is  said  unintelligible,  except  to 
those  who  can  separate  its  sense  from  the  form  and 
manner  in  which  it  is  put.  The  points  towards  which 
one  has  been  working,  and  the  appeals  made  to  the 
feelings  and  Christian  consciousness  of  the  congrega- 
tion, and  other  main  parts  of  the  discourse,  ought  to 
stand  out  distinctly  from  the  general  level,  so  that  the 
congregation  shall  at  once  understand  their  impor- 
tance, and  their  relation  to  the  other  parts.  We 
often,  however,  hear  the  same  exalted  style  and  the 
same  impressive  delivery  continued  throughout,  or  the 
same  sobriety  of  language  and  calmness  of  feeling. 
Both  obscure  the  preacher's  meaning  by  putting  the 
comparatively  unimportant  parts  on  the  same  level  as 
the  most  important.  The  Extemporary  Preacher  is 
more  likely  to  escape  this  defect,  and  it  is  a  very  con- 
siderable one,  than  the  reader  of  written  sermons, 
because  whatever  the  former  says,  he  says  with  a 
clear  conception  of  its  bearing  on  the  rest  of  his  dis- 
course; he  w^ill  therefore  in  preaching,  just  as  he 
would  in  conversation,  emphasize  and  bring  out  what 
he  knows  ought  to  be  so  dealt  with :  in  his  case  every 
thing  comes  fresh  from  his  thoughts  and  feelings. 
Invariable  rules  can  hardly  be  given  on  this  subject. 
The  sense  and  object  in  view  must  in  each  case  point 
out  what  ought  to  be  made  prominent.     Sometimes, 


96  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

though  this  will  not  often  be  the  case,  the  first  ^Yords 
of  the  sermon,  as  the  Quo  usque  tandem  of  Cicero's 
first  oration  against  Catiline,  will  be  of  this  char- 
acter; and  sometimes  it  will  be  requisite  that  the  con- 
cluding paragraph  should  be  calm  and  unimpassioned. 
Any  invariable  rules  on  this  point  are  not  only  im- 
possible, but  would  be  prejudicial  if  possible,  because 
they  would  lead  to  uniformity  of  treatment,  which 
ought  carefully  to  be  avoided  in  preaching,  so  often  to 
the  same  hearers.  It  would  be  very  tedious  and 
wearisome  to  the  congregation  to  find  the  preacher 
twice  every  Sunday  emphatic  by  rule  in  the  same 
parts  of  his  discourse.  What  he  has  to  attend  to  is 
to  be  emphatic,  impressive,  or  solemn  whenever  the 
sense  requires  it  of  him.  This  implies  that  he  must 
also  bear  in  mind  the  converse  of  what  has  just  been 
said,  I  mean  the  necessity  of  shade  as  well  as  of  light, 
of  calmness  as  well  as  of  energy,  of  deliberateness  as 
well  as  of  rapidity  of  delivery.  And  it  may  not  be 
out  of  place  here  to  remark,  that  all  this  applies  not 
more  to  the  manner  in  which  God's  Word  is  expounded 
and  enforced,  than  it  does  to  the  manner  in  which  it 
is  read,  and  the  Word  read  occupies  a  large  part  in 
our  Liturgy. 
20.  Cor-  I  -^yiu  \iQTCQ  add  a  word  or  two  on  the 

rect  Empha- 
sis comes         subject    of    Emphasis.       In    reading    the 
naturallj  t*  t 

in  speaking.    Prayers  little  or  no  emphasis  is  required. 
readin<^.  ^^J  remarks  are  intended  only  for  Preach- 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  97 

ing  ;  but  still  even  with  this  restriction,  I  cannot  make 
them  without  some  misgivings,  knowing  that  one  can 
hardlj  make  a  wrong  emphasis,  who  fully  understands 
and  feels  what  he  is  saying,  and  that  one  who  does 
not,  but  yet  thinks  he  ought  to  emphasize  the  important 
words,  can  only  be  right  by  accident ;  and  that,  there- 
fore, the  emphases  in  which  he  will  happen  to  be  cor- 
rect will  be  far  outnumbered  by  those  in  which  he  v/ill 
be  mistaken;  and  often  in  such  a  way  as  to  cause  a 
smile.     But  I  overrule  my  misgivings  by  the  considera- 
tion that  in  Preaching  no  emphasis  is  a  fault,  and 
wrong  emphasis  a  very  great  fault ;  and  that  in  this, 
as  in  all  other  particulars  of  delivery,  we  ought  to 
know  what  is  a  fault,  and  avoid  it;  and  what  is  correct, 
and  endeavor  to  attain  to  it.     Points  of  this  kind  are 
best  explained  by  examples.      The  late  Archbishop 
Whately  used  to  make  the  remark  that  Clergymen  in 
reading  the  Ten  Commandments,  generally  emphasize 
the  "not"  in  the  second,  the  third,  the  sixth,  and  the 
four  following  Commandments.     This  he  considered 
wrong,  on  the  ground  that  the  question  is  not,  whether 
the  subject-matter  of  these  commandments  respectively 
is  forbidden,  or  enjoined.     There  is  no  question  on 
that  point.     They  are  all  obviously  and  necessarily  pro- 
hibitions.   The  question  is,  what  is  the  thing  forbidden  ? 
That  is  what  the  mind  is  listening  for;  and  so  that  is 
what  in  each  case  ought  to  be  made  clear  and  unmis-. 
takable  by  being  emphasized.    For  instance,  *^ making 
9 


98  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

graven  images,"  *' taking  God's  name  in  vain," 
''murder,"  "committing  adultery,"  ''stealing,''  &c. 
The  "nots"  are  not  to  be  slurred  over,  but  they  are 
not  the  emphatic  words.  I  think  one  has  only  to  read 
the  18th  verse  of  the  xix.  ch.  of  St.  Matthew's  Gospel 
to  be  convinced  of  the  justice  of  this  comment.  I 
lately  heard  an  elderly  Clergyman  reading  this  part 
of  the  Ante-Communion  Service,  and  throughout  he 
emphasized  the  "Thou"  of  each  Commandment  in  a 
manner  the  eifect  of  which,  as  it  went  on  accumulating, 
might,  in  some  of  the  congregation,  have  disturbed 
the  reverential  feeling  proper  to  the  occasion.  This 
mistake  could  not  have  been  made  designedly,  for  if 
so,  it  would  have  implied  that  the  reader  was  of  opinion 
that  all  mankind,  with  the  exception  of  those  to  whom 
the  Decalogue  had  been  given,  were  at  liberty  to 
blaspheme,  murder,  steal,  etc.  The  occurrence  of  such 
mistakes  in  the  reading  of  the  Ten  Commandments, 
intimates  that  it  is  no  easy  thing  for  the  reader  to 
emphasize  correctly.  My  object  is  to  show  the  im- 
portance of  right  emphasis.  I  make  no  attempt  to 
give  rules,  because  correctness  in  this  matter  can  only 
be  secured  when  the  reader  is  able  to  realize  to  his 
mind,  at  the  instant  of  uttering  the  words,  all  their 
meaning,  purpose,  and  connection.  This  is  often 
difficult  in  itself,  and  the  difficulty  is  greatly  increased 
in  the  case  of  the  reader,  by  the  fact  that  what  he  has 
to  do  is  a  direct  inversion  of  the  natural  order  of 


^^         1 


EXTExMPORARY    PREACIIIXa.  99 

things  ill  this  matter.  The  natural  order  is  to  have 
the  feeling  and  the  meaning  in  the  mind  first,  and  then 
to  seek  for  words  by  which  utterance  may  be  given 
them ;  whereas  the  reader  has  the  words  presented  to 
him  first,  and  then  has  to  find  what  they  mean. 

I  would  give  from  the  Te  Deuni  the  short  21 
sentence  "  We  believe  that  Thou  shalt  come  to  be  our 
Judge,"  as  an  instance  of  the  great  facility  with 
which  false  emphases  may  be  made,  and  of  the  Protean 
eSfects,  upon  what  we  are  reading,  of  such  mistakes. 
We  have  here,  if  we  omit  the  conjunction  "that,"  and 
regard  "to  be"  as  a  single  word,  a  sentence  of  eight 
words,  susceptible  of  eight  distinct  meanings;  each  of 
these  eight  meanings  being  brought  out  solely  and 
entirely  by  the  position  of  the  emphasis;  for  in  every 
case  the  words  used  would  be  the  same.  It  may  be 
worth  while  to  spend  a  few  moments  in  observing  this 
instance  of  the  transforming  effect  of  emphasis.  If 
the  first  word,  "we,"  be  emphasized,  it  implies  that 
the  meaning  of  the  declaration  is,  that  others  do  not 
believe  this  proposition,  but  we  do.  The  whole  sen- 
tence then  becomes  an  answer  to  the  question,  who 
believes  it?  We  do.  If  "believe"  be  emphasized,  it 
implies  that  our  state  of  mind  with  respect  to  the 
statement  made,  is  not  that  of  inquiry,  or  of  acqui- 
escence, or  of  affirmation,  etc.,  but  of  belief,  and  the 
sentence  becomes  a  reply  to  the  question.  What  is  our 
state  of  mind  with  respect  to  this  proposition?     If 


100  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

^'Thou"  be  emphasized,  its  meaning  becomes  that  we 
believe  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  coming  Judge;  and  it  is 
a  reply  to  the  question,  Who  is  to  be  the  coming 
Judge?  If  ''shalt,"  its  meaning  is  that  what  we 
affirm  is  irrevocably  fixed,  and  it  becomes  a  reply  to 
the  question,  Whether  we  are  absolutely  certain  on 
this  point?  If  "come,"  it  means  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
not  here  now  in  a  visible  bodily  form,  but  that  He  will 
reappear  in  that  form,  and  it  is  a  reply  to  the  question, 
Will  Jesus  Christ  ever  leave  heaven,  and  return  again 
to  earth?  If  "to  be,"  its  meaning  is  that  His  being 
our  Judge  will  not  be  an  accidental,  or  undesigned  re- 
sult of  His  coming,  but  its  very  intended  purpose. 
If  "our,"  its  meaning  is  that  whoever  may  be  the 
judge  of  Turks,  infidels,  and  heretics,  Jesus  Christ  is 
He  by  whom  we  shall  be  judged.  If  "Judge,"  its 
meaning  is  that  at  His  second  coming,  His  character 
will  be  that  of  a  Judge.  Now  here  are  eight  meanings, 
any  one  of  which,  if  brought  out  by  emphasis,  will 
occupy  the  mind,  and  so  hinder  the  perception  of  the 
other  seven.  The  inference  I  would  draw  from  this  in 
connection  with  my  present  subject,  is,  that  it  must  be 
very  difficult  indeed  for  one  who  reads  his  sermons 
to  make  correct  emphases.  It  generally  happens, 
which  is  just  what  might  be  expected,  that  the  reader 
of  sermons  makes  little  or  no  use  of  emphasis;  and 
this  may  be  one  cause  of  the  complaint  of  the  dulness 
of  sermons  delivered  in  this  manner.     The  least  inat- 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACIIINQ.  191 

tention  to  Avhat  is  being  read,  or  the  preoccupation  of 
the  reader's  attention  by  his  MS.,  which  is  virtually  in- 
attention to  his  subject,  must  result  in  a  great  many 
neglected,  and  a  great  many  wrong  emphases.  In 
conversation,  the  most  illiterate  clown  is  not  guilty  of 
these  faults,  because  his  words  are  the  expression  of 
his  present  thought  and  feeling.  The  same  remark, 
though  not  quite  to  the  same  extent,  may  be  made  of 
the  Extemporary  Preacher. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


SOME  EEMARKS   ON    THE   AUIS  AND    SUBJECTS    OF   SERMONS. 


1.    Sub-  I  NOW  come    to    another   part    of  my 

jects  and 
aims  of  undertaking,  that  of  the  subjects  and  aims 

Preaching.      of  the  modern  preacher.     He  will  do  well 

epoclifin        ^0  Consider,  that  though  ultimately,  and 

^^f^h^^^^^"^       in  their  simplest  expression,  the  subjects 

Churcli.  and  aims  of  the  preacher  must  always  be 

Each  has  ^  ,  *^ 

its  own  dis-     the  same,  yet  that  they  bear  such  a  re- 

tinctive  .  .         .  i        i  t        i 

character.  lation  to  the  times  that  he  wno  does  not 
take  that  relation  into  account  will  in  a  great  measure 
in  his  preaching  beat  the  air.  The  Christian  Church 
has  advanced  through  several  epochs,  each  character- 
ized by  very  distinct  features  of  its  own.  We  find  the 
first  age  marked  by  great  freedom  and  variety,  as  well 
as  freshness  and  depth  of  feeling  and  thought.  Then 
comes  an  age  of  hard  doctrinal  controversy.  In  the 
Mediaeval  Church  we  find  an  honest  formalism  and 
religious  submission  to  authority.  At  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  men  are  debating  eagerly  the  question  of 
the  grounds  of  acceptance,  whether  the  individual  is 
102 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHIXQ.  103 

to  depend  on  the  authority  of  the  Church,  or  on  the 
simple  Word,  and  the  action  of  the  Divine  Spirit  on 
his  own  heart.  At  the  present  day  the  characteristics 
of  all  former  epochs  appear  to  be  in  conflict.  And 
out  of  this  conflict  there  appears  to  be  rising,  coming 
as  well  from  the  side  of  the  laity  as  of  the  Clergy,  a 
scn.'tc  of  the  necessity  of  insisting  on  our  right  to  use 
"the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  has  made  us  free," 
which  prompts  men  to  look  every  where  for  what  is 
good  and  true,  and  to  approve  it  wherever  found ;  and 
which  is  disposed  to  make  the  main  feature  of  religion 
the  imitation  of  Christ;  and  the  main  feature  of  that 
imitation  the  effort,  in  accordance  with  His  example, 
to  do  good;  and  which  sets  above  all  precepts  that 
one  which  bids  us  "be  perfect,  even  as  our  Father  in 
heaven  is  perfect,"  that  is,  to  be  true,  and  just,  and 
holy,  and  loving.  And  so  it  was  with  the  Old  Dis- 
pensation. As  its  history  advanced,  new  epochs 
opened  upon  it.  Prayer  and  thanksgiving  became  a 
higher  service  than  that  of  sacrifices.  The  moral  law 
was  clearly  distinguished  from  and  elevated  above  the 
ceremonial.  The  value  of  contrition  and  repentance 
was  revealed.  Messianic  anticipations  became  dis- 
tinctly a  refuge  from  the  distresses  and  perplexities  of 
the  present.  It  is  evident  then  that  the  preacher 
ought  to  address  himself  to  the  feelings,  the  vrants,  the 
mental  movem.ents  of  his  time,  not  because  they  are 
necessarily  right  in  every  particular,  but  because  there 


104  EXTExMPORARY   PREACHING. 

must  be  reason   for  their  existence ;    and  it  is   his 

business  not  to  ignore  or  to  denounce  that  reason,  but 

to  consider  it,  and  to  find  how  much  truth  there  is  in 

Tvhat  is  acting  widely  and  deeply  on  the  feelings  and 

minds  of  men.     To  do  otherwise, — to  live  in  a  bygone 

world,   or  in  a  world  of  his  own, — is  to  render  his 

ministry  of  the  Word  useless. 

2-  The  The  remark  readily  su52:2;ests  itself,  that 

character  of  J        oo  ' 

the  age  this  attention  to  the  spirit  and  wants  of 

must  be  at-  .  o  p       • 

tended  to.        the  times  may  be  carried  too  lar;  lor  m- 

The  safe-  ,  .  o  . 

guard  pro-      Stance,  in  an  age  oi  controversy  one  may 
^^^Inst  car-     ^^  occupied  too  much  with  controversies, 

ryingthis  ^^^^  acquire  too  controversial  a  spirit, 
to  an  ex- 
treme. But  in  an  age  of  controversies,  contro- 
versy must  be  attended  to:  it  is  the  work  of  the  age. 
Or  again,  in  an  age  when  religious  formalism  and 
submission  to  authority  are  in  the  main  alone  possible, 
one  may  exaggerate  what  are  the  necessities  of  the 
age;  but  if  these  are  the  necessities  of  the  age,  the 
preacher  ought  to  understand  their  necessity  and 
uphold  them.  I  am  supposing  a  man  of  good  judg- 
ment, and  of  such  an  amount  of  knowledge  as  may 
be  expected  in  a  Minister  of  the  Word,  for  without 
them  he  will  be  liable  in  any  question  he  may  have 
to  consider  to  be  carried  to  faulty  extremes.  The 
preacher,  however,  has  a  safeguard  which  will  never 
fail  him,  and  that  safeguard  is,  that  he  must  ever 
speak  in  accordance  with  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  remera- 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  105 

bering  that,  as  the  Minister  of  Christ,  he  stands  in 
Christ's  place. 

We   can   see  a   good  reason    why  the       3.  Ilow 

^  ''  Christ  is  all 

Word,  although  it  had  embraced  the  whole  in  all  in  the 
history  of  the  Jewish  Church,  should  end  must  be  so 
where  it  does,  and  should  not  go  on  to  in-  preacher, 
elude  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church  subsequent 
to  the  Apostles'  times,  notwithstanding  its  importance. 
As  what  is  contained  in  the  Word  was  to  form  the 
subject  of  the  study  of  God's  people,  and  the  subject 
of  the  preaching  of  the  Ministers  of  the  Word,  it  was 
necessary  to  confine  it  to  the  history  of  Him  who  is 
the  Author  and  Finisher  of  our  Faith, — the  Way, 
the  Truth,  and  the  Life.  The  Messiaruc  anticipations 
of  the  Old  Testament,  in  which  that  Dispensation 
issues,  prepare  the  way  for  Him.  We  then  have  the 
picture  of  His  life,  and  the  account  of  what  He 
taught.  Then  how  He  was  preached  by  the  Apostles, 
and  His  kingdom  established.  He  therefore  is  the 
subject  of  the  entire  Word.  It  is  not  merely  that 
His  figure  stands  forth  from  it,  but  that  He  is  the 
centre  to  which  every  thing  it  contains  more  or  less 
directly  converges.  This  could  not  have  been  so 
much  the  case  had  the  Word  been  made  to  include  the 
subsequent  history  of  the  Church.  In  that  subse- 
quent history,  man,  with  his  passions,  and  follies,  and 
mistakes,  is  generally  more  prominent  than  God.  But 
now  the  preacher  of  the  Word  can  hardly  misunder- 


106  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

stand  his  subject ;  or,  if  lie  strays  from  it,  he  must  do 

so  wittingly. 

4-  It  ^g  tiie  Word,  then,  now   stands,  pre- 

would  be 
mischiev-        senting    to    the    preacher's    view    Jesus 

were  pos-        Christ  and  Him  only,  he  must,  like  the 

ml")lp    to  T'P- 

vive'aijj-       Apostle  Paul,  be  determined  in  a  certain 

gone  epoch.      ^^^^^^  ^^  j^^^^^  jj.^^  ^^^1^^      ^^^   ^1^^^,^  ^^^-^^ 

be  some  among  both  preachers  and  hearers  who  will 
see  the  great  central  truths  of  religion  through  the 
light  of  subsequent  portions  of  the  Church's  history; 
for  the  great  epochs  of  its  history  do  not  appear  to 
come  utterly  to  an  end,  but  as  it  were  to  live  on  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  some  here  and  some  there, 
almost  as  if  all  that  had  taken  place  since  had 
taught  them  nothing :  for  them  subsequent  history 
appears  to  have  no  existence.  So  it  is  in  an  especial 
manner  with  the  Mediaeval  epoch,  which  in  many 
leading  particulars  teaches  lessons  very  different  from 
those  taught  us  by  the  first  ages  of  the  Church.  Still 
though  the  lessons  taught  by  these  two  ages  were  so 
widely  different  as  to  be  almost  contradictory  of  each 
other,  yet  the  ideas  and  practices  of  each  were  rela- 
tively to  their  own  times  equally  wise  and  equally 
true.  Each  presents  to  us  truths  which  after-times 
ought  not  to  lose  sight  of,  and  which  may  be  profitably 
made  use  of  in  other  times  as  occasions  may  arise, 
but  which  it  must  be  futile  and  mischievous  to  attempt 
to  reproduce  again  in  their  complete  form  ;  for  having 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  107 

once  been  displaced  by  the  growth  of  religious  ideas 
and  practices,  they  can  never  again  possess  the  whole 
field:  nor  is  it  desirable  that  they  should.  For  in- 
stance, how  suited  to  the  times,  and  therefore  how 
powerful  an  instrument  for  subduing  and  keeping  in 
subjection  men's  minds,  was  the  imposing  ritual  of 
the  Mediaeval  Church,  aided  by  the  ministering  arts 
of  Architecture,  Sculpture,  Painting,  and  Music.  How 
invaluable  also  for  those  times  was  the  principle  of 
submission  to  ecclesiastical  authority.  And  of  what 
great  advantage  was  it  that  the  Church  was  able  to 
organize  society  for  the  work  of  society  wherever  the 
motive  or  aim  of  the  work  was  religious,  as  in  founding 
and  maintaining  asylums  to  which  in  those  rough  and 
troublous  times  the  weak,  and  those  weary  of  the 
world  might  retire;  and  in  being  the  great  almoner 
of  society ;  and  in  providing  a  sufficient  number  of 
churches  and  Clergy  for  the  comforting  and  instruction 
of  the  people.  The  Mediaeval  Church  teaches  us  that 
these  things  were  of  great  value  in  those  times,  and 
so  suggests  the  probability  of  their  being  of  value, 
with  certain  qualifications  and  adaptations,  under  the 
changed  circumstances  of  other  times.  But  while  we 
admit  this,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  Primitive 
Church  grew  and  prospered  under  far  more  arduous 
circumstances,  without  a  settled  ritual ;  without  the 
ministering  aid  of  Art;  without  the  subjection  of 
society  to  ecclesiastical   J^uthority;  and  without   the 


108  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

power  of  organizing  society  for  religious  purposes. 
It  worked  with  other  and  very  different  instruments; 
and  of  these  the  same  may  be  said  as  of  the  instru- 
ments used  by  the  Mediaeval  Church,  that  they  were 
the  best  adapted  to  their  own  times;  and  that  with 
those  qualifications,  which  are  necessary  if  they  are 
applied  usefully  to  altered  circumstances,  they  have 
a  value  for  all  times.  And  so  we  might  go  on  through 
all  the  epochs  of  the  Church's  history.  Absolutely 
then  those  preachers  are  wrong  who  hold  up  the  prac- 
tices and  ideas  of  any  bygone  epoch  as  if  they  ought 
to  rule  the  present.  Relatively,  however,  such 
preachers  may  be  doing  a  good  work,  for  they  are  the 
counterpoise  to  those  who  ignore,  or  misunderstand, 
or  ignorantly  decry,  the  practices  and  ideas  of  the 
past.  He  alone  in  this  respect  will  be  doing  his  work 
properly  who  shall  claim  for  the  Church  of  to-day  the 
same  liberty  of  action  which  the  Church  has  used  in 
all  anterior  epochs;  and  which,  however  strenuously 
resisted,  must  in  every  epoch  be  established  eventually ; 
and  who,  because  he  understands  the  spirit  of  the  an- 
terior epochs  of  the  Church's  history,  and  their  neces- 
sary connection,  will,  instead  of  vainly  endeavoring 
to  recall  men  to  what  has  passed  away,  together  with 
the  reason  of  its  existence,  confine  himself  to  the  ad- 
vocacy only  of  what  may  still  be  of  use  in  the 
ideas  and  practices  of  the  past.  To  contend  for  what 
has  become  obsolete,  because  unsuitable  to  the  wants 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  109 

and  circumstances  of  the  times,  cannot  be  a  means  for 

conveying  to  men's  minds  a  knowledge  of  Christ,  or 

of  extending  His  kingdom :  it  can  only  obscure  the 

former  and  limit  the  latter.     It  makes  men  conscious 

that  there  is  an  oppugnance  between  Him  as  He  is 

preached  to  them  and  what  they  know,  and  feel,  and 

desire.     Where  this  is  the  case,  the  fault  probably  is 

in  the  preacher.     Christ  is  for  all  times,  as  much  for 

the  modern  as  for  the  Mediaeval  or  the  ancient  world. 

Indeed,  the  modern  preacher  has  an  advantage  over 

those  of  previous  ages,  inasmuch  as  he  has  a  more  ex- 

tensiv^e  armory  of  means  to  choose  from ;  only  let  him 

not  endeavor  to  make  use  of  weapons  unsuited  to  the 

existing  condition  of  the  fight. 

A  mistake  to  which  attention  may  now       5.  Ser- 
mons must 
be  directed  is  that  into  which  preachers    not  be  re- 

.  gar  (led  as 

fall  when  they  make  their  sermons  too  Confessions 
theological.  There  are  some  whose  dis- 
courses consist  of  dogmatic  statements,  and  again  of 
dogmatic  statements  perpetually  reiterated.  Chris- 
tian doctrine  is  not  to  be  lost  sight  of  in  the  pulpit, 
and  on  many  occasions  it  must  be  the  direct  object  of 
the  preacher  to  enunciate  and  establish  it;  but  speak- 
ing generally  this  is  not  his  object.  His  object  is 
precisely  that  of  the  prophets  of  old,  and  of  the  Great 
Master  Himself.  Let  him  take  the  Bible  for  his 
guide.  His  object  is  to  exhort,  to  warn,  to  comfort, 
to  instruct,  and  to  do  all  these  on  Christian  grounds. 
10 


110  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

We  sometimes  hear  it  affirmed,  that  a  sermon  ought 
not  to  be  regarded  as  the  address  of  a  Christian 
preacher  to  a  Christian  congregation  unless  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity,  and  also  the  work  of  the  Second 
and  Third  Person  of  the  Trinity  in  the  redemption  of 
man,  can  be  readily  collected  from  its  statements. 
Such  opinions  as  these  indicate  very  little  knowledge 
either  of  the  principles  of  composition  or  of  the  hu- 
man mind.  The  principles  of  composition  require 
that  each  sermon  should  have  its  own  subject,  and 
that  that  subject  should  be  set  forth  distinctly.  It 
should  stand  out  to  the  mind,  as  a  well-grown  tree 
does  to  the  eye,  clearly  defined,  with  its  own  stem  and 
its  own  system  of  branches ;  but  these  people  would 
smother  all  their  trees,  as  nature  sometimes  docs  in 
the  tropical  forest,  with  the  same  set  of  overwhelming 
creepers.  We  must  remember  that  what  the  congre- 
gation have  to  judge  of  is  not  a  single  sermon,  but  a 
long  series  of  sermons, — to  be  precise,  two  sermons 
preached  each  Sunday  by  the  same  person  through 
many  years ;  and  we  must  consider  what  would  be  the 
effect  of  the  distinctive  doctrines  of  our  religion  being 
made  a  more  or  less  prominent  feature  in  every  one  of 
these  hundreds  of  sermons.  There  is  no  one  but  can 
tell  what  the  effect  of  it  would  be  upon  his  own  mind. 
It  would  be  neither  attractive  nor  edifying.  Let  the 
preacher,  then,  recollect,  that  Confessions  of  Faith  are 
one  thing,  and  that  sermons  are  another. 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  IH 

But,  however,  on  the  other  hand,  the       ^>-  Nor,  on 

llic  other 

preacher  must  take  care  lest,  while  avoid-  hand,  as 
ing  the  mistake  of  being  too  doctrinal,  he  Bridgcwatcr 
fall  into  the  opposite  mistake.  Sermons  ^-,0^0,1'^'^^'  °^ 
cease  to  be  sermons  as  soon  as  they  lose  assays. 
sight  of  the  Faith.  Nothing  can  be  more  frigid  and 
soulless,  or  produce  a  more  disagreeable  sense  of  dis- 
cord, than  the  discourses  of  those  who  adopt  the 
moral  essay  and  Bridgewater  Treatise  style  of  preach- 
ing. The  preacher  must  preach  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ ;  not  only  because  there  is  no  other  subject  so 
deeply  and  enduringly  interesting  to  man,  but  because 
there  is  no  other  subject  on  which  he  is  commissioned 
to  speak.  Pulpits  are  not,  and  could  not  be,  main- 
tained for  any  other  purpose.  When  Napoleon  I.  was 
told  that  it  was  proposed,  in  arranging  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Neapolitan  kingdom,  to  retain,  though 
on  a  greatly  reduced  scale,  a  Church  establishment, 
on  the  ground  of  its  utility  to  literature,  he  replied, 
with  the  sagacity  which  characterized  all  his  legisla- 
tive ideas,  that  that  was  not  a  ground  upon  which  any 
Church  establishment,  however  small,  could  be  main- 
tained; that  there  was  but  one  ground  upon  which  it 
could  be  maintained,  which  was  its  utility  as  an  in- 
strument of  religious  consolation  and  instruction. 
The  preacher  will  have  to  consider  what       7.  Ilow 

.  the  prcach- 

position  he  will  take  up  in  reference  to    er  must  re- 
the   increased    scientific   knowledge,   and    creased^sci-' 


112  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

entific  the  more  profound  Biblical  and  historical 

knowledge 

and  the  his-     criticism  of  the  present  day.     Many  ig- 

Bibiicai  nore  these  matters  altogether.     This  may 

the^pre^nt^  be  done  in  some  rural  parishes  without  any 
day.  great  hurt  to  the    congregation,   though 

never  without  some  damage  to  the  mind  of  the 
preacher  himself;  for  these  are  matters  with  which 
he  ought  to  be  acquainted,  and  upon  which  he  ought 
to  have  arrived  at  the  best  conclusions  his  opportuni- 
ties admit  of.  The  question,  however,  is  full  of  diffi- 
culty. Neither  scientific  nor  critical  knowledge  is 
within  every  body's  reach.  Speaking  for  myself,  I 
have  no  fear  that  the  modern  advances  of  science,  and 
the  wider  spread  of  scientific  knowledge,  will  weaken 
men's  faith  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  was 
a  time  when  it  was  supposed,  and  perhaps  even  with 
more  reason  than  at  present,  that  the  then  recent  dis- 
covery of  the  laws  which  regulate  the  solar  system, 
and  the  revelations  made  by  the  telescope,  must  have 
this  effect.  It  was  demonstrated  that  this  earth  was 
not  the  centre  either  of  the  sidereal  or  of  the  solar 
system ;  and  it  appeared  no  longer  possible  to  localize 
either  the  heaven  above  or  the  hell  beneath  the  earth. 
But  I  am  not  aware  that  any  one  now  finds  that  his 
astronomical  knowledge  indisposes  him  to  Christian 
belief.  With  respect  to  the  historical  and  Biblical 
criticism  of  the  present  day,  the  result  probably  will 
be  that  it  will  give  us  more  distinct  ideas  than  we  now 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  113 

possess  with  respect  to  the  religious  history  and  pro- 
gress of  mankind,  which  is  a  very  different  thing  from 
overthrowing  religion.  Its  concern  with  the  Sacred 
Text  is  to  ascertain  its  meaning,  and  to  offer  us  an 
interpretation  of  it  in  harmony  with  the  existing  state 
of  knowledge.  These  interpretations  can  hardly  be 
hostile  to  that  progressive  revelation  of  Himself  which 
God  has  ever  been  making,  through  patriarchs  and 
prophets ;  and  then  through  Jesus  Christ ;  and  with 
the  enlargement  of  our  knowledge  may  expand,  but 
cannot  diminish.  At  all  events,  however,  there  are 
two  remarks  which  may  be  made  on  this  subject  with 
which  every  body  will  agree,  and  which  cover  some 
portion  of  the  ground  which  the  question  opens  up  to 
us.  One  of  these  remarks  is,  that  it  will  very  much 
weaken  the  influence  of  the  pulpit  if  it  be  found  to 
have  placed  itself  in  unreasoning  antagonism  to  the 
science  and  the  criticism  of  the  day ;  and  the  other  is 
a  warning  against  the  opposite  course,  that  of  being 
over  eager  to  accept  as  ascertained  and  established 
facts  matters  which  have  not  yet  advanced  beyond  the 
stage  of  scientific  or  critical  conjecture. 
8.  He  The  modern   preacher  will    do  well  to 

must  con- 
sider the  consider  how  greatly  the  relation  of  the 
change  in  .  . 
the  relation  intelligence  of  congregations  to    that  of 

telligence        preachers  differs  at  the  present  day  from 
of  the  con-      ^^g^^  jj.  ^j^g  jj^   former  times.     In  some 

gregation  to 

that  of  the      cases  this    difference  is   so  jrreat  that    it 

preacher.  ^ 

10* 


114  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

amounts  to  a  partial  inversion.  There  were  times 
when  the  Clergy  alone  were  educated.  Of  those 
times  they  were  the  natural  and  undisputed  intel- 
lectual leaders.  But  now  all  the  upper  classes  are 
similarly  and  equally  educated;  and,  indeed,  education 
has  been  extended  even  to  the  lowest  classes  of 
society.  And  moreover,  as  the  Clergy  must  devote  a 
large  portion  of  their  time  to  parochial  work,  there 
are  many  of  the  laity  who  are  able  to  follow  up  in- 
tellectual pursuits  far  more  thoroughly  than  is  possible 
for  the  Clergy. 

9.  Also  Simultaneously    also    with    this    great 

the  enlarge-  ° 

ment  of  the     alteration  in  the  intellectual  position  of 

means  of  ,       ,  i        i        /-i 

instruction,  the  laity  towards  the  Clergy,  there  has 
been  brought  about  an  equally  great  dif- 
ference between  the  relation  which  the  modern  pulpit 
bears  to  the  now  existing  means  of  instruction,  and 
that  which  the  Mediseval  pulpit  bore  to  what  were  the 
means  of  those  days.  It  almost  might  be  said,  that  in 
those  times  the  pulpit  stood  alone  as  the  only  means 
of  instruction;  but  in  these  days  the  press  has  become 
far  more  widely  used,  and  far  more  powerful  than  the 
pulpit.  These  are  facts  which  are  most  material  to 
any  profitable  consideration  on  the  subject  of 
preaching. 

10.  These         ^t  all  events,  they  at  once  oblige  us  to 
changes  *'  ° 

suggest  the      acknowledge    that   there    may   be    some 

justice  of 

some  of  the      justice   in  the   reiterated   complaints  we 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  115 

hear  from  the  more  hidily-cultivated  por-    common 

°     ''  -^  complaints 

tion  of  the  laity  of  the  dulness  and  un-    against 

sermons. 

profitableness  of  the  generality  of  modern 
sermons.  Their  attainments  in  knowledge,  and  the 
thought  they  have  bestowed  on  that  knowledge,  are  in 
advance  of  the  knowledge  and  thought  which  perhaps 
the  majority  of  modern  sermons  exhibit.  If  this  be 
so,  and  few  I  believe  are  disposed  to  dispute  it,  there 
can  be  but  one  way  of  meeting  the  complaint,  and 
that  is  by  our  paying  more  attention  to  preaching ;  by 
which  I  mean,  that  we  must  endeavor  to  attain  to 
fuller  and  wider  knowledge  of  the  subjects  upon  which 
we  have  to  speak,  and  to  a  more  efi'ective  and  better 
way  of  saying  what  we  have  to  say.  In  other  words, 
what  we  have  to  do  is,  I  think,  what  it  is  the  ob- 
ject of  this  little  work  to  recommend.  The  know- 
ledge and  practice  I  am  speaking  of  as  requisite,  can- 
not, I  know,  be  secured  without  many  years  of  study; 
but  this  is  not  more  than  men  give  in  every  profession 
and  callinac  to  what  is  to  be  the  Avork  of  their  lives. 
It  may  be  useful  to  take  another  view      ^•^J*  ^^°^^ 

•^  of  different 

of   the  objects   and  aims   of   preaching,    kinds  of 

preachers. 

that  in  which  they  will  present  themselves    Those  who 

,  .11  1  •        ^in^  fit 

when  we  consider  them  as  they  appear  in    strictly 
the  work  of  different  kinds  of  preachers.    Ill'^'^^fj-on. 

For  instance,  some  aim  distinctly  and  pri-    Those  who 

''  ^  take  wider 

marily  at  instruction.      This   instruction    views. 
may  be  of  two  kinds.     It  may  be  confined  to  theology 


116  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

simply,  or  it  may  embrace  also  history  and  moral 
science,  and  indeed  almost  all  kinds  of  knowledge, 
regarding  theology  as  a  kind  of  summa  philosophia, 
•which  harmonizes  and  gives  its  proper  place  and 
highest  aim  to  all  we  know.  Those  who  aim  chiefly 
at  what  is  generally  understood  by  strictly  theological 
instruction,  undertake  a  very  difficult  task,  for  they 
are  speaking  upon  what  all  the  congregation,  in  its 
leading  facts  and  mother-ideas,  are  already  acquainted 
with,  and  which  cannot  be  spoken  upon  well  and  in- 
terestingly, and  so  as  really  to  instruct,  without  a 
complete  knowledge  of  the  subject  and  much  logical 
acumen.  "What  we  find  however  to  be  the  fact  is,  that 
very  many  of  those  who  aim  in  their  sermons  at 
merely  doctrinal  instruction  seldom  go  beyond  the 
quotation  of  texts,  which  is  a  very  dry  way  of  dealing 
with  the  subjects  they  handle,  and,  as  Jeremy  Taylor 
observes,  a  very  inconclusive  way.  Those  who  take 
the  other  and  wider  view  of  the  instruction  sermons 
may  be  made  to  convey,  propose  to  themselves  a  very 
high  aim  indeed,  but  one  which  is  certain  to  be 
attended  with  lamentable  and  ludicrous  failures,  unless 
the  preacher  be  provided  with  very  extensive  learning 
and  with  very  sound  judgment. 
12.  Those         ^  second  description  of  preachers  make 

who  aim  at 

awakening       it   their   object  to   awaken  and  feed  reli- 

religious  t      •        i     • 

emotion.  gious   omotion.     It  IS  obvious   that  very 

little  knowledge  is  required  for  this  purpose.     A  man 


EXTEMPORAHY   PREACHING.  117 

"who  is  very  ignorant  of  books  may  still,  if  he  feels 
those  emotions  himself,  be  able  to  communicate  them 
to  others.  This  is  the  aim  of  a  large  proportion 
of  those  whom  we  call  popular  preachers.  These 
preachers  are  very  serviceable  to  large  classes  of  the 
community.  For  it  has  always  hitherto  been  the  case 
(and  we  may  suppose  that  it  will  continue  to  be  so), 
that  the  great  majority  of  mankind,  being  engaged 
throughout  their  lives  in  daily  business  and  daily  toil, 
have  been  so  unlearned  that  more  could  be  effected 
by  awakening  their  religious  feelings  than  by  endeav- 
oring to  convey  to  them  religious  instruction.  But 
the  very  qualification  which  makes  these  preachers 
useful,  the  fact  of  their  preaching  being  chiefly  emo- 
tional, is  the  reason  why  we  so  rarely  find  them  pos- 
sessing much  weight  in  the  world  of  intellect.  It  is  a 
rare  thing  to  find  those  who  are  able  to  teach  well, 
able  also  to  move  the  feelings  well;  and  so,  too,  vice 
versh :  in  the  Ministry,  however,  of  the  Word  there  is 
a  place  for  each. 

A  third  class,  that  was  very  numerous       i^-  Those 

who  regard 

in  the  last  generation,  but  is  now  very    sermons  as 

...  a  depart- 

much  on  the  wane,  make  it  their  aim  to    ment  of  the 
1  J.  -i.-      1  I,      xi  Belles  Let- 

give  pleasure  to  critical  ears  by  the  pro-    ^,.^^. 
priety  of    their    ideas,    language,    and    style.     They 
hardly  regard  a  sermon  as  any  thing  more  than  a  lit- 
erary composition.     Sermons  with  them  are  a  depart- 
ment of  the  Belles  Lettres.     Bishop  Porteus's  sermons 


118  EXTEMPORAKY    PREACHmG. 

and  a  large  portion  of  Bishop  Heber's  were  of  this 
kind.     But  nothing  more  need  be  said  of  this  class  of 
preachers,  as  the  growing  earnestness  of  religious  feel- 
ing is  rapidly  extinguishing  them. 
14.  Those        A  fourth  class  aim  at  producinsj  a  kind 

who  dis-  _  . 

parage  ser-  of  quietism — I  had  almost  said,  no  effect 
mons. 

at  all — by  their  preaching.     They  find  the 

other  parts  of  the  ritual  more  productive  than  the  ser- 
mon of  those  emotions  they  themselves  delight  in;  and 
some  of  the  members  of  their  conc^resjations  are  soon 
brought  to  the  same  way  of  thinking  and  feeling  ;  they 
therefore  discountenance  and  disparage  any  kind  of 
preaching  that  is  accompanied  with  excitement,  or  al- 
most with  interest.  We  sometimes  hear  them  even 
objecting  to  preaching  altogether.  It  would  not  be 
correct  to  say  that  they  regard  the  sermon  from  the 
ritualist's  point  of  view,  because  the  sermon  is  a  part 
of  the  ritual;  nor  would  it  be  right  to  say  that  they 
are  altogether  in  the  wrong,  for  many  sermons  pro- 
duce what  cannot  be  considered  as  a  religious  effect 
upon  the  minds  of  those  who  hear  them:  many  con- 
troversial sermons,  and  many  that  are  not  controver- 
sial, are  of  this  kind.  The  deep  and  calm  feelings  too 
which  these  preachers  aim  at  cultivating,  though  not 
all  adapted  to,  or  attainable  by  the  mass  of  mankind, 
are  true  and  beautiful,  and  ought  to  be  exhibited  to 
the  world,  but  the  inert,  the  ignorant,  and  the  con- 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  119 

tentedly  sinful,  will  never  be  awakened  by  a  refined 
quietism. 

These  are  the  different  kinds  of  preach-       l^-   Those 

who  regard 

ers  who  by  their  energy  and  talents  are  sermons  as 
brought  into  prominence.  There  are,  the  service, 
however,  two  other  classes,  each  of  which  re<^arcUhera 
is  probably  more  numerous  than  all  the  ^^  ^  P^^'J  ^^ 
preceding  four  combined.  First,  those 
who  have  no  definite  aim  in  their  preaching,  merely 
regarding  the  sermon  as  a  part  of  the  service  they 
have  to  perform;  and,  secondly,  those  who  without 
any  great  amount  of  learning,  or  the  possession  of 
any  popular  talent,  endeavor  to  set  the  Gospel  before 
the  souls  which  have  been  entrusted  to  their  spiritual 
oversight.  They  feel  their  responsibility,  and  endea- 
vor to  discharge  their  duty  faithfully.  It  is  the  at- 
tention of  this  class,  particularly  of  the  younger  por- 
tion of  it,  that  I  am  desirous  of  obtaining  for  the  sug- 
gestions of  these  pages.  I  wish  them  to  consider 
whether  it  is  not  within  their  reach  to  make  their 
preaching  a  far  more  effective  instrument  for  good 
than  they  have  hitherto  found  it,  by  devoting  to  it 
that  amount  of  time,  study,  and  labor,  without  which 
nothing  very  great,  or  very  good,  can  be  attained  in 
any  department  of  human  exertion. 


CHAPTER  V. 


SOME  EEMAEKS  OX  THE  PLACE  ASSIGNED  TO  PREACHING  IN" 
THE  WOED  OF  GOD,  AND  IN  OUR  SERVICE. 


1.  The  I  xow  propose  to  consider  the  way  in 

place  as- 
signed to  which  the  Word  itself  speaks  of  this  in- 
preaching  /.     .  .  • 
in  the  Word,  strument  for  its  own  propagation,  exposi- 

OldDis-  *^'^i^?  enforcement  and  adaptation  to  the 

pensation.  varying  circumstances  of  the  times.  Un- 
der the  Old  Dispensation  the  prophetical  office,  that 
now  held  by  the  properly-qualified  Minister  of  the 
Word,  was,  we  may  almost  say,  the  only  means  used 
for  maintaining  and  advancing  the  knowledge  of  God. 
In  times  as  rude  and  unsettled  as  those  were,  the  reli- 
gious and  moral  forces  of  society  are  always  likely  to 
organize  themselves  for  the  protection  of  society.  At 
such  epochs  this  organization  will  stand  forth  more 
prominently  than  at  others.  It  was  so  again  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  And  it  will  also  happen  that  whatever 
is  done  by  the  organization  of  these  forces  of  society 
will  seem  to  those  who,  like  ourselves,  regard  the  his- 
tory from  a  distance,  and  with  the  aid  of  only  very  brief 
120 


EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING.  121 

and  imperfect  records,  very  much  as  if  it  were  the 
work  of  the  leaders  only.  Bat  it  is  obvious  that,  to 
have  enabled  them  to  carry  out  the  bold  and  difficult 
tasks  in  which  v/e  frequently  find  them  engaged,  the 
sympathy  and  support  of  considerable  numbers  were 
requisite.  And  as  respects  their  teaching,  it  must  be 
equally  obvious  that  unless  the  truths  and  sentiments 
they  enunciated  had  been  previously  more  or  less  dis- 
tinctly apprehended  by  others,  what  they  might  have 
said  would  have  fallen  to  the  ground.  The  position 
therefore  in  which  the  Hebrew  prophet  stood  towards 
his  own  times,  was  not  that  of  complete  difference 
from,  or  opposition  to  the  religious  thought  and  feeling 
of  those  around  him,  but  that  he  saw  more  clearly, 
and  was  able  to  enunciate  more  forcibly  than  others 
what  was  at  work  in  many  minds  besides  his  own. 
The  Spirit  of  God,  which  guides  to  a  knowledge  of 
the  truth,  and  supplies  the  boldness  to  say  and  to  do 
what  is  required  for  its  maintenance,  was  in  him  in 
greater  measure  than  in  others.  Because  he  saw 
distinctly  truths  which  others  had  seen,  but  seen  less 
distinctly,  or  perhaps  which  others  were  only  prepared 
to  see,  he  became  to  them  the  messenger  of  God  to 
proclaim  these  truths  to  them.  Had  it  been  other- 
wise, what  he  enounced  would  have  fared  as  good 
seed  fares  when  it  falls  upon  dry  and  naked  rock.  Be 
this,  however,  as  it  may,  just  what  we  are  told  of 
David,  as  a  prophet,  that  "  the  Holy  Ghost  spake  by 
11 


122  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

his  mouth,"  the  father  of  the  Baptist  declares  was 
true  of  ''all  the  prophets  which  had  been  since  the 
world  began."  They  were  raised  up  in  long  succession, 
through  God's  providence,  to  proclaim  by  preaching 
each  advance  to  a  purer  and  higher  morality,  and  to  a 
more  spiritual  religion,  and  to  awaken  and  keep  alive 
the  assurance  of  the  ultimate  triumph  of  good  over 
evil,  of  right,  of  mercy,  and  of  truth.  Each  pro- 
gressive revelation  of  God's  Holy  Spirit,  and  every 
application  of  previously  secured  truths  and  principles 
to  the  wants  of  the  times,  was  made  through  this  in- 
strumentality. We  have  no  intimation  of  any  other 
way  in  which  these  things  were  or  could  have  been 
done. 

_  2.  Then  But  to  pass  from  the  old  Dispensation 

m  the  New. 

to  the  New.  Here  it  is  that  we  behold 
the  prophetical  office  exalted  to  its  highest  dignity, 
and  exercised  on  the  widest  scale.  The  Son  of  Man 
has  now  taken  that  office  on  Himself.  The  Word  has 
become  flesh,  and  is  shining  as  the  Light  of  the  world ; 
and  preaching,  we  find,  is  the  only  instrument  He 
uses  for  disseminating  the  Light.  The  preacher  and 
the  prophet  in  Him  are  synonymous.  "He  went 
through  every  village  and  city  preaching  the  glad 
tidings  of  the  kingdom  of  God."  All  His  parables, 
and  discourses,  and  teaching  of  every  kind,  were  de- 
livered as  spoken  words,  that  is  to  say,  were  preached. 
It  had  been  in  this  way  that  he  who  was  ''the  prophet 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  123 

of  the  Highest"  had  prepared  the  way  for  Him:  ^'In 
those  days  came  John  the  Baptist  preaching."  And 
after  a  time  we  find  the  Great  Preacher  sending  forth 
the  twelve  to  preach  the  kingdom  of  God.  And  then 
He  appoints  other  seventy  also,  and  sends  them  two 
and  two  before  His  face  into  every  city  and  place 
whither  He  Himself  would  come,  to  preach.  The 
miracles  He  empowered  them  to  do  were  to  support 
their  preaching.  And  after  the  Ascension  of  their 
Divine  Instructor,  His  disciples  go  forth  to  preach 
His  Gospel  in  all  the  world,  as  they  had  been  com- 
manded; miracles  again  being  made  subsidiary  to 
preaching;  for ''they  went  forth  and  preached  every 
where,  the  Lord  working  with  them,  and  confirming 
the  word  with  signs  following."  The  object  rf  the 
great  miracle  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  as  described 
in  anticipation  by  the  Lord  Himself;  and  as  shown 
by  the  nature  of  the  powers  it  conferred,  for  it  gave 
knowledge  and  words ;  and  as  seen  by  its  efi'ects ;  was 
to  enable  those  who  were  acted  on  by  it  to  preach: 
and  so  it  happened,  not  accidentally,  that  the  first 
propagation  of  the  Gospel  was  the  direct  and  imme- 
diate result  of  preaching.  And  this  was  the  instru- 
ment, as  I  have  already  had  occasion  to  notice,  by 
which  Paul  and  his  brother-Apostles  established  the 
Gospel  in  the  world.  ''  God,"  he  says,  "was  pleased 
by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to  save  them  that 
believe."     Again  he  says,  in  writing  to  Titus,    ''God 


124  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

in  due  time  manifested  His  Word  through  preaching." 
And  in  speaking  of  himself  to  Timothy  he  says  not 
only  that  he  had  been  appointed  "an  Apostle  and  a 
teacher  of  the  Gentiles,"  but  also,  and  he  puts  it 
first,  as  being  foremost  in  his  thoughts,  "a  preacher" 
of  the  Gospel,  though  indeed  each  of  the  three  titles 
to  a  great  extent  implies  the  other  two.  In  his  Epis- 
tle to  the  Romans  he  greatly  magnifies  and  insists  on 
the  necessity  of  the  oflice:  "  How  shall  they  call  on 
Him  on  whom  they  have  not  believed?  and  how  shall 
they  believe  on  Him  of  whom  they  have  not  heard  ? 
and  how  shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher  ?"  sup- 
porting what  he  says  by  a  reference  to  the  prophet 
Isaiah :  "  How  beautiful  are  the  feet  of  those  who 
preach  the  Gospel  of  peace,  and  bring  the  glad  tidings 
of  good  things !"  So  was  the  Gospel  established  in 
the  world  by  preaching.  And  by  this  same  means 
was  it,  as  I  have  shown  elsewhere,  maintained  and 
extended.  And  whenever  the  love  men  had  for  it  was 
languishing  and  dying  away,  this  was  the  instrument 
used  for  its  revival.  Every  Minister  of  the  Word 
should  consider  the  exhortation  which  the  great 
preacher  Paul  urged  upon  his  brother-preacher 
Timothy :  I  charge  thee  therefore  before  God  and 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  will  judge  the  quick  and 
dead  at  His  appearing  in  His  kingdom ;  preach 
the  Word ;  be  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season ; 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  125 

reprove,  rebuke,  exhort  with  all  long-suffering  and 
doctrine. 

Such  is  the  way  in  which  preaching  is  set  before  us 
in  the  Word  of  God. 

In  the  preceding  parao-raphs  I  have  been  3-  Preach- 
using  the  words  Preacher  and  Prophet,  and    synony- 

.  mous  with 

Preaching  and  Prophesying,  as  nearly  prophet, 
synonymous.  And  so  for  our  present  purpose  they 
may  be  regarded.  The  prophets  were  preachers  of 
the  Word  of  the  Lord;  God  spake  by  their  mouths. 
In  this  sense  the  Apostles  were  prophets,  and  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  Head  of  the  prophetic  order.  And  so 
in  His  Church  every  preacher  who  speaks  in  con- 
formity to  the  will  of  God,  and  who  advances,  or  even 
maintains  among  men  the  knowledge  of  God,  which 
includes  the  duty  of  man,  belongs  to  the  same  order 
as  the  prophets  of  old.  '-For  the  prophecy  came  not 
in  old  time  by  the  will  of  man ;  but  holy  men  of  God 
spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost." 

The  remark  is   obvious,  that  probably       4.  The 

'  ,  ^  ;  want  of 

the  proportion  of  the  community  that  is  preachers 

...  still,  and 

able  to  read  is  greater  now  than  it  was  m  always  will 

the  days  when  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  ®'  ^^^^  * 
went  forth  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  nations  on  the 
northern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  But  no  great 
weight  need  be  attached  to  this  remark,  although  we 
add  to  it  that  the  facilities  for  reading  have  increased 
since  the  Apostle's  time  in  a  still  greater  degree  even 
11* 


126  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

than  the  proportion  of  readers;  because  amongst  our- 
selves the  absolute  number  of  those  who  require  the 
aid  of  the  preacher  is  so  great  that  we  are  unable  to 
supply  the  want.  The  want  is  great  and  pressing  in 
every  part  of  the  country.  In  respect  of  this  matter 
we  cannot  talk  of  some  towns  or  some  neighborhoods 
beins:  more  enlicrhtened  than  others,  for  the  difference 
between  the  most  and  the  least  enlightened  is  so  in- 
considerable as  to  make  scarcely  any  practical  differ- 
ence. Can  we  put  our  finger  on  any  place,  and  say, 
^'The  preacher  is  not  needed  here;  his  labors  may  be 
transferred  elsewhere?"  Indeed  the  probability  seems 
to  be  that  the  preacher  will  always  be  needed  even  by 
the  most  cultivated  classes,  for  wherever  religious 
feeling  exists  the  preacher  satisfies  a  desire  which  is 
felt  by  most  of  us.  Religion  has  been  regarded  by 
statesmen  and  historians  as  the  strongest  of  all  bonds 
of  union.  And  so  it  is;  it  binds  nations,  and  races, 
and  sects  together  in  a  manner  which  nothing  else  can. 
And  it  has  this  effect  because  the  religious  sentiment, 
being  in  its  highest  form  and  expression  Christian 
love,  in  whatever  degree  it  may  exist,  in  the  same  de- 
gree will  it  crave  for  sympathy,  for  union  and  com- 
munion of  feeling ;  and  for  a  large  assembly  to  be 
consciously  moved  in  common  by  the  thoughts  and 
feelings  of  one  who  preaches  the  Word  of  God  with 
truth  and  power,  is  a  profitable  as  well  as  a  delightful 
way  of  satisfying  this  longing  of  the  spirit. 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHIXa.  127 


With  the  facts  and  thoughts  to  which       ^-  Answer 

to  the  dis- 

attention  has  just  been  directed,  I  woukl    pai-aging 

,  .  i        ^    xi  xi.  i.  1       remark,  that 

place  in  contrast  the  attempts  now  made  people  do 
so  frequently  to  disparage  Preaching.  "hufdiVo 
Sometimes   this  is    done   by  the   remark    ^^^^^  ^^J~ 

"^  mons,  but  to 

"  That  people  come  to  church  to  pray,  pray, 
and  not  to  hear  sermons."  The  answer  to  this  is, 
"That  it  is  not  true:  people  come  to  church  both  to 
pray  and  to  hear  sermons."  Sometimes,  however, 
the  objection  does  not  go  further  than  an  insinuation 
of  an  inferiority  in  Preaching  to  Praying.  There  is 
an  ambiguity  in  this  way  of  putting  the  objection,  and 
it  will  be  almost  an  answer  to  it  to  state  it  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  remove  the  ambiguity.  There  cannot 
properly  be  any  comparison  between  Preaching  and 
Praying,  because  they  are  not  the  acts,  which  the  ob- 
jection would  require  them  to  be,  of  the  same  person. 
The  one  is  the  act  of  the  Minister,  and  the  other  the 
act  of  the  congregation.  The  comparison  then  must 
be  between  the  advantage  of  listening  to  sermons  and 
the  advantage  of  praying.  The  method  of  the  argu- 
ment is  to  affirm  that  the  benefits  of  the  latter  greatly 
preponderate  over  the  benefits  of  the  former,  and  to 
put  this  statement  in  such  a  way  as  to  insinuate  that 
it  is  safe  and  profound  to  sneer  at  and  depreciate 
preaching  as  a  matter  of  little  consequence.  There 
is  no  weight  at  all  in  this  argument.  First,  benefit  is 
a  word  of  relative  significance.     There  may  be  some 


128  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

to  whom,  for  satisfactory  or  for  unsatisfactory  rea- 
sons, that  may  be  of  little  benefit  which  will  be  of 
much  benefit  to  many.  Far  the  greater  part  of  the 
population  of  this  country,  some  even  perhaps  of  the 
educated  classes,  may  still  be  in  need  of  being  taught 
not  only  how  to  pray  aright,  but  to  pray  at  all  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word  praying.  As  yet,  to  them 
the  benefit  of  the  opportunity  of  praying,  of  which 
they  cannot  or  do  not  avail  themselves,  is  not  of  so 
much  value  as  the  opportunity  of  hearing  sermons, 
which  may  lead  them  to  prayer.  It  is  also  a  sufficient 
reply  to  the  objection  to  point  out  the  fact  that  there 
are  two  kinds  of  sermons,  good  sermons,  by  which  all 
may  be  benefited,  and  bad  sermons,  from  which  very 
little  good  can  result  to  any  one ;  the  carelessness, 
ignorance,  and  tediousness  of  which  really  often  do 
much  harm.  The  objection  includes  both  kinds, 
whereas  it  cannot  apply  to  the  former,  that  is  to  say, 
to  what  all  sermons  ought  more  or  less  to  be. 

G.  And  Another  and  somewhat  similar  way  of 

that  hear-  ^  -^ 

ing  ser-  attempting  to  depreciate  preaching  is  to 

mons  is  n-  i        i         •  .      .    ^     . 

inferior  to       afhrm  that  hearing  sermons  is  inferior  to 
^'  praying,    because    preaching  is    a  means 

used  for  bringing  men  to  praying ;  and  that  the  end 
must  be  greater  than  the  means.  The  weight,  how- 
ever, of  this  objection  is  not  greater  than  the  weight 
of  the  one  we  have  just  disposed  of.  It  is  possible 
that  that  which  is  the  means  for  attaining   several 


EXTEMPORARY    rREACIIINQ.  129 

great  ends  may,  in  regarding  a  whole  system,  be  as 
important  a  part  of  that  system  as  any  one  of  those 
ends  taken  separately.  Preaching  has  ever  been  the 
chief  means  for  bringing  men  to  a  knowledge  of  God 
and  of  duty,  and  for  maintaining  and  advancing  reli- 
gious culture.  It  cannot  therefore  be  depreciated  by 
the  fact  that  in  a  certain  sense  it  stands  to  prayer  in 
the  relation  of  a  means  to  an  end.  This  is  not  a  com- 
plete account,  it  is  a  very  partial  one  indeed,  of  what 
preaching  is.  The  objector  (though  what  has  just 
been  said  is  a  sufficient  answer)  may  also  be  taken  on 
his  own  ground.  Why  should  the  fact  that  preaching 
is,  among  its  other  uses,  a  means  to  prayer,  be  a  rea- 
son for  thinking  lightly  of  preaching,  any  more  than 
the  fact  that  preaching  is  a  means  to  holiness  be  re- 
garded as  a  reason  for  thinking  lightly  of  praying? 
He  cannot  depreciate  preaching  in  this  way  in  favor 
of  praying,  because  we  have  only  to  advance  a  single 
step,  and  then  by  parity  of  reason  prayer  itself  may 
be  depreciated.  The  effect,  however,  ought  to  be  the 
very  opposite ;  for  having  discovered  that  prayer  is 
a  means  to  holiness,  our  conclusion  ought  to  be  not 
to  neglect  prayer,  but  to  be  instant  in  prayer.  In 
proportion  to  the  greatness  and  importance  of  the  end 
is  the  value  of  the  proper  means  for  attaining  that 
end ;  and  preaching,  we  must  remember,  is  much 
more  than  a  means  for  bringing  men  to  pray. 


130  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

7.  A  cause        The  truth  is  that  these  objections,  just 

for  these 

objections.  like  every  thing  else  in  the  ^Yorld,  have  a 
cause ;  and  with  some  that  cause  is,  that  the  degree 
of  freedom  and  of  mental  stir  which  accompanies 
preaching  does  not  suit  the  ecclesiastical  system  and 
aims,  or  the  sentiments  of  the  objectors;  while  with 
others  it  is  incompatible  with  that  decent  conforming 
worldliness  which  in  so  many  results  from  the  en- 
deavor to  serve  botli  God  and  Mammon.  These  two 
classes  of  men  dislike  earnest  preaching.  It  is  too  much 
of  an  appeal  to  the  heart  and  intellect.  It  is  too  direct 
a  challenge  to  thought  and  inquiry.  It  awakens.  It 
disturbs.  It  individualizes  both  the  hearer  and  the 
preacher,  by  calling  into  activity  religious  consciousness 
and  the  sense  of  duty  in  each.  Those  worldly-minded 
persons  whose  religion  consists  very  much  in  outward 
reverence  find  it  disagreeable  to  be  addressed  in  this 
way.  Such  preaching  and  the  eifects  it  produces  are  also 
at  variance  with  the  feelings  of  those  who  discharge 
among  us  the  necessary,  or  at  all  events,  the  useful  part 
of  maintaining  the  importance  of  the  Church's  ritual — 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  sermon  they  depre- 
ciate is  a  part  of  the  ritual.  I  am  speaking  of  what  we 
find  is  the  general  feeling  among  such  persons  on  this 
subject.  They  care  little  about  preaching.  They 
seem  to  care  more  even  for  the  mere  accessories  of  the 
service,  such  as  the  splendor  and  decorations  of  the 
sacred  building,   and  the   excellency  of  the   music. 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  131 

There  is  notliing  annoying  or  condemnatory  intended 

by  those  observations,  for  so  long  as  a  powerful  party 

in  the  Church  neglect  the  ritual,  and  give  too  much 

prominency  to  the  sermon  in  the  service,  the  position 

such  objectors  take  up  is  useful,  though  very  liable  to 

be  carried  in  themselves  to  a  faulty  extreme. 

And  here   I  take  the    opportunity  for       8.  Proper 
^  ^  *^  length  of 

offering  the  suggestion  that  the  character    sermons. 

Btid  effects 
and   structure    of    our    Liturgy,    as    now    of  making 

used,  seem  to  indicate  the  propriety  of  Jq^.^^  ^°° 
not  allowing  our  remarks  to  exceed  over  the  half-hour 
the  general  practice  of  the  Clergy,  and  the  general 
opinion  of  the  Laity  on  the  subject  assigned  to  them. 
In  the  Morning  Service  about  this  space  of  time  is 
occupied  by  the  Prayers,  and  as  much  more  by  the 
reading  of  the  Word.  In  the  Evening  Service  the 
time  occupied  by  each  of  these  is  somewhat  less.  To 
preach,  therefore,  for  an  hour,  or  three  quarters  of  an 
hour,  appears  to  be  both  a  Psychological  and  a  Litur- 
gical mistake.  Because  even  if  any  considerable 
portion  of  the  congregation  had  the  power  of  attention 
requisite  for  so  long  a  sermon — which  however  they 
have  not — still  so  long  an  effort  of  attention  given  to 
the  sermon,  would,  by  comparison  dwarf  the  effect  of 
the  previous  reading  of  the  Word,  and  of  the  Prayers. 
Much  of  the  effect  of  the  Word  read  and  of  the 
Prayers  must  be  obliterated  by  the  great  strain  laid 
on  the  mind  by  a  sermon  of  an  hour's  length.     We 


132  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHINa. 

ought  to  take  care  that  neither  the  devotional,  nor 
the  instructional  part  of  the  Service  should  detract 
from  the  effect  of  the  other,  but  that  each  should  as 
far  as  possible  aid  the  other;  and  one  way  of  providing 
for  this  is  to  give  to  each  about  the  same  space  of 
time.  In  considering  the  point  before  us  we  may 
regard  the  reading  of  the  Word  as  participating  in 
both  the  above-mentioned  characters,  for  it  both 
conveys  instruction,  and  excites  devotion.  Another 
concomitant  of  long  sermons  is  that  somehow  or  other, 
either  from  the  accumulating  effects  of  the  fact  just 
noticed,  or  because  the  Preacher  of  long  sermons 
appears  himself  to  take  more  interest  in  his  sermons 
than  in  the  other  parts  of  the  service,  or  from  these 
reasons  combined,  the  congregation,  that  is,  those  who 
are  brought  to  like  the  practice,  and  the  tone  of  mind 
created  by  it,  come  to  think  more  of  the  sermon  than 
of  the  other  parts  of  the  service,  although  those  other 
parts  be  Prayer  and  Praise,  and  the  hearing  of  God's 
Word  read.  Among  such  congregations  a  want  of 
right  understanding  of  what  is  meant  by  Public  Wor- 
ship is  often  betrayed  by  such  questions  as,  '^  Who 
are  we  to  hear  to-day"  and  "Who  preaches  at  such 
or  such  a  Church?"  The  vulgar  expression  of 
"sitting  under  such  or  such  a  Minister"  is  doubly 
offensive,  because  it  implies  the  same  state  of  mind  on 
this  point — the  feeling  not  that  Preaching  is  a  great 
thing,  but  that  it  is  the  great  thing ;  and  that  every  other 
part  of  the  service  is  of  very  subordinate  interest. 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  133 

It  oiiglit  to  be  a   very  leading  object    ^  p-  Modern 

°  ^  o        cf  failure  in 

with  us  all  to  make  the  Church  attractive;    making  the 

Church 

so  attractive,  if  possible,  as  that  "all  attractive. 
people  should  flow  to  it."  Of  late  we  have  seen 
great  efforts  made  in  different  quarters  with  this  view. 
One  party  in  the  Church  evidently  rests  its  main  hopes 
on  Preaching.  Another  party  of  very  opposite  sen- 
timents, while  to  a  great  extent  discouraging  preach- 
ing, makes  much  of  the  devotional  part  of  the  ser- 
vice ;  some  among  them  carrying  this  principle  to  so 
unreasonable  an  extreme  that  they  appear  to  be 
thinking  more  even  of  the  material  accessories  to  de- 
votion  than  of  the  service  itself.  Earnestness,  how- 
ever, of  any  kind  will  always  be  attractive  to  many 
minds,  and  there  are  truths  earnestly  held  by  each  of 
these  parties  that  have  in  themselves  ever  been 
attractive ;  but  it  cannot  be  said  of  either  of  them, 
that  they  have  rendered  the  Church  as  attractive  to 
the  great  body  of  the  people,  either  among  the  edu- 
cated or  uneducated  classes,  as  those  desire  who  wish 
well  to  the  cause  of  religion. 

We  may  take  it  for  o-ranted  that  the       l^-  The 
•^  ^  /=  ^  ^  fault  not  in 

reason  of  this  failure    is    not   in    Christ-    human  na- 
ture, which, 
ianity;  nor,  notwithstandmg  what  many    as  all  history 
,  ^  1  1  r        1  M  1  shows,  has 

preachers  and  would-be  philosophers  may    ^^  strong 
say,  in  human  nature.     The  fault  is  not    ^°'^;^f  ^^^ 

•^ '  united  wor- 

in  the  latter,  because  there  is  no   senti-    ship. 


12 


134  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

ment  of  our  common  human  nature  so  general  as,  I 
will  not  say  the  religious  sentiment,  but  I  will  speak 
of  a  very  definite  manifestation  of  that  sentiment,  and 
which  bears  directly  on  the  point  now  before  us,  I 
mean  that  particular  manifestation  of  it  which  exhib- 
its itself  in  the  manner  in  which  in  all  ages,  and 
among  all  races  of  men,  and  under  all  forms  of  civili- 
zation and  of  religion,  we  find  men  dedicating  certain 
places  and  buildings  to  religious  services,  and  uniting 
together  for  the  purpose  of  public  worship.  Wherever 
we  may  go  over  the  surface  of  the  earth,  if  we  are 
among  men  who  are  able  to  raise  such  structures,  we 
find  temples  thronged  with  worshippers  drawn  toge- 
ther by  the  desire  of  gratifying  their  religious  senti- 
ments. There  is  really  no  feeling  or  practice  about 
which  there  is  so  striking  a  concurrence,  so  general 
a  unanimity.  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
our  churches  are  a  result,  or  a  characteristic  of  our 
Christianity.  There  has  scarcely  ever  been  a  city  in 
the  world  in  which  the  grandest,  costliest,  and  most 
conspicuous  structures  were  not  dedicated  to  the  ser- 
vice of  religion.  It  has  been  so  in  every  quarter  of 
the  globe.  Approach  any  city  in  India,  in  Turkey, 
or  in  China,  and  that  which  will  first  attract  your  eye, 
soaring  above  and  appearing  to  dominate  over  all  the 
other  works  of  men's  hands,  will  be,  just  as  in  the  case 
of  this  Christian  land,  the  sacred  buildings  of  the 
place — temples,  mosques,  pagodas.     And  when  some 


EXTExMPORARY    PREACHING.  135 

old  form  of  civilization  has  passed  away,  all  that  ap- 
pears to  remain  of  it  standing  before  our  eyes,  as  a 
visible  memorial  of  what  has  been,  are  the  massive  re- 
mains of  its  temples.  Here  and  there  you  may  find 
the  mouldering  fragments  of  some  secular  building, 
but  what  you  find  every  where,  as  if  kept  up  by  an 
invisible  hand,  for  the  purpose  of  witnessing  to  us  of 
the  religious  sentiments  of  past  generation  of  men, 
are  the  temples.  It  is  so  with  the  wonderful  rock 
temples  of  India,  with  the  massive  structures  raised 
by  the  myriad-handed  devotion  of  the  Egypt  of  the 
Pharaohs,  with  the  glorious  remains  that  still  rise 
above  the  sandy  wastes  of  the  Syrian  desert,  the  rock 
of  Athens,  and  the  deserted  fields  of  Paestum,  and 
even  with  the  rudely  grand  monuments  of  ancient 
Mexico,  and  of  our  own  Stonehenge.  A  sentiment 
then  which  has  ever  and  every  where  acted  with  such 
surprising  uniformity,  and  produced  such  great  re- 
sults, and  for  the  gratification  of  which  men  have  al- 
ways been  so  lavish  of  thought  and  labor,  can  have 
nothing  unreal  or  artificial  about  it.  It  cannot  be 
due  to  any  accidental  causes.  It  acts  with  the  force 
of  a  never-failing  instinct  implanted  in  the  very 
depths  of  our  nature  by  the  hand  of  our  Creator. 
However  false,  foolish,  corrupt,  and  corrupting, 
creeds  may  have  been,  this  sentiment  has  never  died 
out :  indeed,  it  has  scarcely  ever  been  weakened.  God 
never  left   us  without  this  witness  of  Himself,   and 


136  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

of  our  relation  to  Him.  It  is  under  the  influence  of 
this  sentiment  that  Christian  churches  have  been 
built,  and  that  Christian  congregations  assemble  in 
them.  We  do  these  things  in  obedience  to  the  desire 
our  Maker  has  implanted  in  our  common  human  na- 
ture to  meet  Him  unitedly,  to  praise  Him  unitedly, 
to  supplicate  Him  unitedly,  and  unitedly  to  have  our 
thoughts  guided  to  true  and  lofty  conceptions  of  Him 
in  a  place  and  house  (in  order  that  all  these  things 
may  be  felt  more  deeply  and  with  less  of  distraction) 
disconnected  from  worldly  uses,  and  dedicated  espe- 
cially to  Him.  This  is  a  natural,  universal,  inde- 
structible sentiment,  as  much  so  as  the  approval  of 
what  is  right,  or  the  affection  of  a  parent  for  a  child. 
If  then  our  churches  are  neglected  by  any  large  pro- 
portion of  our  people,  this  must  be  done  not  so  much 
from  any  fault  in  human  nature,  as  at  the  cost  of  off- 
ering violence  to  a  strong  natural  sentiment. 

11.  Nor  ill        -^QY  is  it  from  any  fault  in  Christianity 
tianity.  That  religion  which,  by  its  own  intrinsic 

power  and  complete  adaptation  to  the  spiritual  wants 
of  civilized  man,  overthrew  all  the  religions  of  Eu- 
rope, and  of  those  parts  of  Asia  and  Africa  at  that 
time  in  connection  with  Europe,  cannot  for  a  moment 
be  considered  to  be  deficient  in  the  power  of  attract- 
ing all  hearts  and  minds  to  itself. 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  137 

If  the   fault,  then,  is   neither   in    our       12.  Those 

who  are  re- 

nature  nor  in  our  religion,  where  is  it  to  pelied,  say 
be  looked  for?  What  is  it?  In  what  cause  what 
does  it  consist?  Where  does  it  reside?  Jo  them ?s^ 
I  would  rather  confine  myself  to  our  own  "^^^61^8?^^^ 
Church,  but  it  will  help  us  in  obtaining  as  a  form. 
an  answer  to  the  question  before  us,  to  observe  that 
this  loss  of  attractive  power  has  spread  much  more 
widely  in  the  Church  of  Rome  than  in  any  other 
Christian  body.  We  may  almost  ask  what  has  become 
of  the  religion  of  Italy,  of  Spain,  of  France,  and  of 
Germany.  The  Pope  tells  us  in  his  recent  allocution 
that  the  fault  is  to  be  found  in  the  philosophical  and 
political  speculations  of  the  day,  and  in  the  corrup- 
tions of  human  nature.  And  many  of  our  own  reli- 
gious leaders  give  very  similar  replies.  These  cannot 
be  the  reasons.  If  they  were,  Christianity  could  never 
have  existed  in  the  world.  The  true  reasons  must  be 
very  different  from  any  thing  of  this  kind.  It  may  be 
as  well  to  hear  what  these  people  say  themselves,  and 
to  see  whether  it  agrees  with  what  those  amongst  our- 
selves say,  both  of  the  educated  and  uneducated 
classes,  w^ho  have  any  complaints  to  make  upon  this 
subject.  It  cannot  be  that  they  are  devoid  of  the  re- 
ligious sentiment.  That  is  impossible.  It  may  be  so 
with  an  individual  here  and  there,  but  it  can  never  be 
the  case  with  classes,  still  less  with  nations.  They 
themselves  do  not  allege  any  thing  of  this  kind.     It  is 


138  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

evident  that  even  the  infidelity  of  the  present  day  is 
not  irreligious.  It  is  puerile  and  false  to  affirm  that 
it  is.  Nor  is  it  that  men  have  imagined  any  thing 
that  they  conceive  to  be  higher  or  purer  than  the  life 
and  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  They  frequently  affirm 
the  contrary.  What  they  tell  us  is,  that  religion  is 
now  taught  as  a  theology,  as  a  system  of  dry  dogmas, 
with  ecclesiastical  rather  than  human  aims;  and  not 
as  a  religion,  that  is,  as  certain  divine  principles  pos- 
sessing a  power  to  elevate  man's  nature  and  to  guide 
his  feelings  aright,  as  something  possessing  the  power 
of  binding  men  to  God  and  to  one  another.  They  say 
that  theology,  dry  dogmas,  are  what  the  Churches  are 
fighting  about ;  are  what  they  see  inscribed  on  the  stand- 
ards which  the  Churches  raise,  and  under  which  they 
urge  their  members  to  fight ;  whereas,  what  men  crave 
for  is  light,  love,  trustfulness;  what  is  true,  what  is 
of  good  report,  what  is  lovable;  what  may  give 
strength  when  strength  is  needed,  and  what  may  give 
rest  where  rest  is  possible;  faith  in  God  and  man; 
hope,  justice,  charity. 
13.  This  This   is  the  account  which   those  who 

intelligible 

and  not  withdraw  themselves  from  the   Ministers 

able  or  ir-  and  ministrations  of  religion  give  of  their 
religious.  conduct.  And  can  we,  who  are  the  Min- 
isters of  the  Word,  and  who  in  this  respect  stand  to 
our  brethren  in  Christ's  place,  regard  the  account 
they  give  of  their  conduct  as  altogether  irrational,  and 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  139 

in  every  sense  irreligious  ?  Rather  is  there  not  some- 
thing religious  in  the  feelings  and  thoughts  which  they 
thus  describe  to  us?  Would  a  theology  and  a  system 
of  dogmas  have  converted  the  Roman  Empire  and  es- 
tablished Christianity  in  the  world?  Very  few,  I 
think,  would  be  of  opinion  that  they  could  have  pro- 
duced such  effects.  And  as  moral  no  less  than  political 
empire  is  maintained  by  the  same  means  by  which  it 
is  acquired,  I  do  not  think  that  Christianity  can  be 
upheld  by  this  method  of  preaching  it  and  presenting 
it  to  men's  minds.  Does  the  artisan  class,  the  one 
amongst  us  which  has  broken  to  the  greatest  extent 
with  the  Church,  do  the  men  of  science,  and  do  the 
wretched  in  any  way  (and  in  these  days  the  forms  of 
mental  as  well  as  of  other  kinds  of  distress  are  very 
numerous),  feel  that  what  they  are  in  need  of  is  a  the- 
ology and  dogmas?  When  therefore  we  offer  these  to 
them  in  the  first  place  as  spiritual  food  and  light,  we 
can  understand  what  they  say  when  they  tell  us  that 
they  are  repelled ;  that  they  felt  that  they  were  ask- 
ing for  the  bread  of  life,  and  we  offered  them  a  stone, — 
something  very  cold  and  hard. 

What  then  are  we  to  do?     Are  we  to       14.  Chris- 

tianity,  as 

give  up  our  theology  and  our  dogmatic    presented 

o    -Tf  11-  ^y  Jgsus 

teaching?      If  we   were   to    do    this,    we  Christ  and 

could  hardly  be  regarded  any  more  as  a  to  Uie^Gen- 

Church.     But  what  we  must  do,  if  it  can  p^wer^to 

be  done,  is  to  find  out  what  men  really  convert  the 

'  *^      world. 

want,  and  to  supply  their  wants,  remem- 


140  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

bering  tliat  the  Gospel  when  first  preached  to  the 
world  exactly  met  the  wants  of  those  spiritually  dis- 
tressed times.  The  fact  that  the  world  accepted 
Christianity  without  the  application,  in  spite  even  of 
the  use  on  the  other  side,  of  force,  voluntarily,  and 
often  at  great  cost,  proves  that  it  supplied  a  deeply- 
felt  want.  It  also  proves  that  men  are  not  irrational 
in  this  matter,  and  that  they  are  not  irreligious ;  for 
the  very  thing  they  require  is,  that  their  reason  and 
their  religious  wants  should  be  really  and  truly  satis- 
fied. This  has  been  done  once,  and  so  may  be  done 
again,  if  attempted  in  the  same  way  in  which  it  was 
originally  done.  What  Christ  did,  and  felt,  and 
taught,  and  what  Paul  did,  and  felt,  and  taught,  was 
what  converted  the  world.  Here  then  is  what  we  who 
are  Ministers  of  the  Word  must  endeavor  to  do,  and 
to  feel,  and  to  teach,  setting  before  all  that  to  do  and 
to  feel  in  this  way  will  be  emancipation  and  happi- 
ness. 

15.  The  If   "we  could   rekindle  the    feeling  de- 

satisfying  ^         _ 

plenteous-  scribed  in  the  thirty-sixth  Psalm,  we  might 
ness  of  1  1     • 

God's  house,  then   DC  sure  that   our   work   was    bemg 

ded^y  the""  "^^^^  done ;  if  making  the  Church  attractive 
Psalmist.  ^^^  -^Q  regarded  as  a  proof  of  our  doing 
our  work  well.  "  The  children  of  men  shall  be  satisfied 
with  the  plentcousness  of  Thy  house  ;  and  Thou  shalt 
give  them  to  drink  of  Thy  pleasures  as  out  of  a  river. 
For  with  Thee  is  the  well  of  life,  and  in  thy  light 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  141 

shall  wc  see  light."  God  is  the  well  of  life,  and  God 
is  the  light  that  we  desire ;  and  in  the  act  of  united 
worship  in  His  house,  may  not  men  attain  to  large 
measures  of  that  light  and  that  life,  and  so  become 
satisfied  with  the  plenteousness  of  His  house  ? 
Our  own  form  of  public  worship  appears       l^.  The 

excellence 

to  supply  us  with  every  thing  that  is  re-    of  our  form 

..(,,.  T        1  •  of  public 

quisite  tor  this  purpose,     in  this  respect    worship,  as 
it  is  quite  unequalled.  We  must  regard  it  as    ^^^i^ifthose 
aiminor  at  satisfyinor  the  wants  both  of  the    ^^^^^^^   , 

o  ^^      o  v/hich  make 

heart  and  of  the  understanding ;  for  re-    ^^o  much  of 

preaching. 

ligion  is  the  offspring  not  of  one  of  these 
only,  but  of  both,  that  is  of  our  whole  moral  nature ; 
and  regarding  our  Liturgy  in  this  way,  we  shall  find,  I 
think,  that  it  provides  with  more  than  human  wisdom 
and  insight  for  every  thing  that  a  religious  service  or 
public  worship  can  require.  Some  Christian  bodies 
err  in  maintaining  services  which  aim  almost  exclu- 
sively at  imparting  instruction.  This  is  evident  from 
the  fact  that  with  them  the  sermon  is  the  main  feature 
of  the  service.  Every  thing  else  is  subordinated  to 
it.  This  is  a  very  serious  mistake,  because  it  is  a 
misconception  of  the  main  object  of  a  religious  ser- 
vice. It  sends  away  those  who  should  have  been  wor- 
shippers without  their  having  had  presented  to  them 
any  proper  opportunity  for  worship.  Many  of  the 
religious  emotions  which  belong  to  worship  have  by 
such  services  not  been  gratified,  or    even  awakened. 


142  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

No   food  is   provided   for   them:    they  are   starved 
Services  of  this  kind  have  a  chilling  and  hardening 
effect.     They  minister  to  a  spirit  of  controversy,  and 
to  arrogancy. 
17.  And  It   ig  possible,  as  we   all   know,  for  a 

with  those  ^ 

which  dis-  Churcli  to  err  in  the  opposite  direction, 
parage  it.  i  t     i      •  i 

It  may  attach  so  little  importance  to  the 

sermon,  or  may  have  a  repugnance  to  the  liberty  of 
prophesying,  as  in  most  of  its  services  to  dispense  en- 
tirely with  the  exposition  of  the  Word  of  God.  This 
is  to  depreciate  the  Word  of  God,  or  to  be  afraid  of  it. 
The  main,  almost  the  whole,  effort  that  is  made,  is  to 
awaken  religious  emotion,  to  sway  the  heart.  Every 
means  has  been  resorted  to  for  bringing  this  about ; 
incense,  vestments,  pomp,  processions,  ceremonies, 
symbolisms,  music,  painting,  sculpture,  architecture. 
Every  thing  that  has  power  to  stir  emotion,  as  distinct 
from  thought,  has  been  attended  to.  The  understand- 
ing alone  is  not  appealed  to,  just  as  if  there  were 
something  to  be  dreaded,  or  even  something  unholy  in 
the  understanding;  or  as  if,  at  all  events,  it  had 
nothing  to  do  with  religion.  It  is  well  that  the  reli- 
gious emotions  should  be  cultivated,  but  ill  that  this 
should  be  done  without  the  aid  of  the  understanding; 
the  consequences  of  which  we  see  are  indistinctness 
and  ignorance  in  matters  of  religion,  that  is  to  say,  the 
substitution  of  superstition  for  religion. 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  143 

Our  admirable  Liturrj^y  avoids  what  is  18.  How 

^•^  ,  the  dif- 

faulty  in  these  two  extremes,  and  combines  ferent 

.  -.  .  .  ,.  factors  of  a 

what  is  good  in  each.     It  neither  allows    religious 
the  exposition  of  the  Word  of  God  to  re-    V)riam?ed^ia 
duce  the  rest  of   the  service  to  insisini-    ^^^^  l^^- 

°  turgy, 

ficance,  nor  does  it  regard  it  as  a  matter 
of  small  account.  Just  so  too  with  the  devotional 
part  of  the  service.  It  does  not  allow  that  to  over- 
power the  instructional  part,  or  to  be  overpowered  by 
it.  Each  is  duly  considered  and  adequately  provided 
for.  The  provision  made  for  religious  instruction  is, 
that  the  whole  of  the  Word  of  God  should  be  read 
through  in  the  course  of  the  year,  the  Psalms  twelve 
times,  and  the  New  Testament,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Book  of  the  Revelation  of  St.  John,  three  times, 
with  the  addition  of  certain  portions  of  the  Gospels 
and  Epistles  being  selected  for  a  fourth  repetition; 
and  that,  furthermore,  on  every  occasion  of  public 
service,  a  part,  or  some  point  of  God's  Word  should 
be  expounded.  The  provision  made  for  pure  devotion 
supplies  means  and  opportunities  for  the  expression 
of  every  kind  of  religious  emotion, — confession,  hu- 
miliation, supplication,  the  making  known  our  wants 
to  God,  the  thanking  and  praising  Him  for  all  His 
goodness,  the  sense  of  pardon,  reconciliation,  and  ac- 
ceptance. Nothing  that  can  call  forth  religious  emo- 
tion, or  to  which  religious  emotion  can  desire  to  give 
utterance,  has  been  omitted. 


144  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 


19.  The  We    may    then,    I    think,    infer,    that 

eflFeci  of  this  "^ 

admirable  wherever  SO  admirable  a  service  fails  to 

be  weakened  clraw  men  to  the  house  of  God,  having 

faultsin  become  incapable  of  satisfying  the  natural 


faults  in 
those  wl 
conduct  it. 


those  who       instinct  for  united  public  worship,  there 


must  be  something  elsewhere  than  in  the 
service  itself  very  wrong.  Whatever  circumstances 
of  the  day  there  may  be  that  bear  upon  and  affect  the 
conclusions  and  feelings  of  certain  classes  among  us, 
I  pass  by,  because  their  direct  consideration  does  not 
belong  to  my  subject.  There  may,  of  course,  be  faults 
in  certain  individuals  and  in  certain  classes,  and  some 
of  the  circumstances  of  the  times  may  be  adverse  to  a 
right  appreciation  of  our  service ;  but  there  may  also 
be  faults  in  the  Minister  who  conducts  the  service. 
This  last  particular  is  all  that  my  subject  now  requires 
me  to  advert  to.  He  may  be  wanting  in  devotion,  or 
in  learning,  or  in  some  qualification  needed  for  en- 
abling him  to  conduct  the  service  in  such  a  manner  as 
shall  satisfy  the  religious  feelings  of  the  congregation. 
20,  The  The  fore<]^oing  pages  aim  at  indicating 

high  and  o   ±    o 

responsible      what  in  some  cases  may  be  the  remedy 

duty  of  the  f     i        r»  •!  •      •         i 

Minister  of  when  the  cause  oi  the  lailure  is  m  the 
thfs  maUen  Minister.  The  service,  even  if  absolutely 
perfect  in  itself,  cannot  do  every  thing. 
Much  will  still  depend  on  the  way  in  which  it  is  con- 
ducted, that  is,  on  the  Minister.  In  this,  after  all, 
lies  his  chief  duty  as  a  Minister  of  the  Word.     Those 


EXTEMPORARY  PREACHING.  145 

committed  to  liis  charge  are  assembled  before  him. 
He  is  leading  their  intercourse  with  God.  lie  is 
delivering  to  them  God's  Word,  and  speaking  to  them 
all,  collected  for  this  purpose,  of  the  things  belonging 
to  their  salvation.  If  it  is  important  that  he  should 
be  able  to  speak  to  them  individually  on  this  subject, 
as  occasions  present  themselves,  how  much  more  im- 
portant is  it  that  he  should  be  able  to  speak  to  them 
all  collectively.  Many  of  them  he  never  sees  at  any 
other  times.  How  solemn  and  imperative  then  is  the 
duty  of  the  Clergy  to  take  care,  by  the  way  in  which 
they  perform  their  part  of  the  service,  that  its  effect  is 
not  weakened,  and  no  discredit  brought  upon  it !  In 
this  matter  a  heavy,  a  very  heavy  responsibility,  de- 
volves upon  them.  They  have  to  take  care  that  the 
instructional  parts  do  really  convey  instruction,  and 
that  the  devotional  parts  are  led  in  such  a  manner  as 
really  to  awaken  and  sustain  devotion.  To  do  these 
things  as  they  ought  to  be  done  requires  very  high 
attainments,  and  is  an  offering  to  God  worthy  of  the 
mind  and  of  the  heart  He  has  given  to  man.  The 
Minister  of  the  Word  is  bound  by  the  most  sacred 
considerations  not  to  aim  at  any  thing  less.  The  man 
who  attains  to  this  high  aim  makes  a  Avorthier  contri- 
bution to  the  service  of  God,  and  does  more  to  elevate 
its  character,  than  he  would  have  done  had  he  built  a 
cathedral  of  marble,  decorated  with  gold  and  precious 
stones,  for  the  service  to  be  performed  in ;  for  the 
13 


146  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

service  is  greater  than  the  temple ;  and  the  mind  and 
heart,  to  which  the  service  gives  expression,  are  more 
precious  than  rubies  and  fine  gold,  and  all  the  things 
we  can  desire  for  ourselves  or  dedicate  to  God  are  not 
to  be  compared  to  them. 


SERMONS 


The  remainder  of  the  volume  will  contain  notes  of 
six  sermons  I  preached  while  occupied  on  this  work, 
followed  by  six  studies  for  sermons.  In  each  case 
the  notes  were  written  after  preaching,  from  recollec- 
tion of  what  had  been  said,  aided  by  the  few  brief 
memoranda  that  had  been  made  at  the  time  of  the 
study  of  the  subject,  and  which  were  made  in  order 
that  the  plan  and  arrangement  which  had  then  been 
thought  out  might  not  be  forgotten.  The  reader  will 
readily  see  that  the  sermons  are  not  finished  compo- 
sitions, such  as  would  admit  of  being  read  from  the 
pulpit,  but  merely  what  they  profess  to  be,  notes  of 
what  was  said. 

I  propose  to  append  to  each  sermon  a  few  observa- 
tions. These  will  be  of  two  kinds;  for  I  wish  to 
comment  both  on  their  matter  and  on  their  structure 
and  composition ;  that  is  to  say,  both  on  what  is  said, 
and  upon  the  way  in  which  it  is  said.  Indeed,  my 
object  in  giving  the  sermons  will  be  contained  in  the 

147 


148  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

observations  which  will  follow  them,  for  it  is  my- wish 
to  use  them  as  illustrations  of  the  rules  and  advice  I 
have  given  in  the  preceding  part  of  this  work. 

It  may  appear  an  unusual  proceeding  for  a  writer 
to  comment  on  his  own  work ;  and  so  I  inust  explain 
why  I  am  about  to  do  this.  I  do  it  because  I  am 
obliged  to  do  it;  for  it  would  not  be  allowable  for  me 
to  reprint  half-a-dozen  sermons  from  other  people's 
works.  I  must  therefore  give  sermons  of  my  own. 
And  as  to  commenting  upon  them,  I  shall  be  able  to 
do  this  with  much  more  freedom  and  ease  when  my 
own  compositions  are  the  subject  of  the  comment,  for 
I  shall  know  why  I  said  one  thing  and  not  another; 
and  what  is  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  each  sermon, 
and  of  each  part  of  each  sermon. 

The  reader,  too,  when  he  finds  that  the  sermons  are 
the  work  of  the  writer  who  has  undertaken  to  give 
him  advice  on  the  very  subject  of  the  composition  of 
sermons,  will  be  more  disposed  to  make  his  own  re- 
marks and  to  form  his  own  judgment  upon  them  than 
he  would  be  were  they  taken  from  other  people's 
works. 

I  have  throughout  the  foregoing  pages  insisted  on 
the  principle  that  the  preaching  of  the  Minister  of 
the  Word  can  rest  only  on  the  Word  itself.  And  I 
have  endeavored  to  make  it  clear  that  I  mean  by  this 
that  his  preaching  must  exhibit  not  an  ignorant  fami- 
liarity, but  what  in  the  opinion  of  competent  judges 


EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING.  149 

is  well-informed  and  intelligent  acquaintance  "with  the 
Word;  that  is  to  saj  it  must  include  a  knowledge  of 
all  that  in  these  days  contributes  to  a  full  and  right 
understanding  of  it.  An  address  that  does  not  show 
this  is  not  an  exposition  of  the  Word  of  God,  is  not  a 
sermon,  but  the  speech  of  an  ignorant  man  that  will 
repel  all  who  are  not  as  ignorant  as  the  speaker  him- 
self. For  the  Word  of  God  is  the  truth  on  all  matters 
of  duty  and  religion  as  far  as  God  has  permitted  it  to 
be  revealed  to  the  existing  generation ;  and  the  pro- 
phet, or  preacher,  is  the  man  who  having  attained  to 
a  knowledge  of  this  truth  delivers  it  effectually  to 
those  who  have  not  attained,  and  who  indeed  never 
will  be  able  to  attain  to  it,  without  his  aid. 

A  sermon  must  also  be  felt  to  be  the  address  of  a 
Christian  to  Christians;  of  one  who  does  himself  feel 
the  truth,  the  force,  and  the  value  of  what  he  is  set- 
ting before  others.  The  convictions  and  the  expe- 
riences he  is  speaking  about  are  his  own.  He  has 
suflfered  from  what  he  describes  as  evil.  What  he 
commends  as  good  and  profitable  he  has  found  good 
and  profitable  to  himself.  The  words  of  an  exponent 
of  Theology  are  one  thing,  and  the  words  of  a  Chris- 
tian Minister  are  quite  another  thing.  The  flavor  and 
eff'ect  of  the  two  are  very  unlike.  The  faculties  even 
to  which  they  are  addressed  are  not  the  same ;  for  the 
former  are  submitted  to  the  critical,  and  the  latter  to 

the  moral  faculties. 

13* 


150  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

One  word  more :  all  worship  is  communion  with 
God.  Without  this  communion  of  man's  spirit  with 
God's  Spirit  there  can  be  no  religion.  It  is  therefore 
not  only  useless,  but  a  positive  and  direct  injury  to 
the  cause  of  religion  that  a  man,  whose  daily  life  and 
bearing  are  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  habitual 
communion  with  God,  should  stand  up  before  the 
Lord's  congregation,  as  Jesus  did  in  the  Synagogue 
of  Nazareth,  to  speak  about  the  things  of  the  king- 
dom of  God.  "What  the  Preacher  may  have  to  say 
must  be  gathered  from  many  sources,  some  old,  some 
new;  but  every  thing  he  says  ought,  and  that  mani- 
festly, to  have  been  sifted,  harmonized,  and  sanctified 
by  communion  with  God,  by  prayer. 


SERMON  I. 


Isaiah  xxviii.  10. 
"Here  a  little,  and  there  a  little." 

It  can  result  only  from  a  narrow  and  mistaken  view 
of  religion  to  suppose  that  any  of  the  conclusions  of 
observation  or  experience  which  may  contribute 
towards  enabling  us  to  form  a  correct  estimate  of 
human  life,  and  to  act  wisely  under  the  circumstances 
in  which  we  are  placed  here,  can  be  unimportant.  It 
is  possible  that  a  statement  may  contain  nothing  dis- 
tinctively Christian,  and  yet,  by  its  truth  and  wisdom, 
may  be  very  serviceable  to  one  desirous  of  doing  good 
Christian  work. 

Consider  what  the  words  ^'here  a  little,  there  a  lit- 
tle," suggest.  Certainly  nothing  religious  or  Christian 
in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of  those  words.  They 
convey  nothing  doctrinal.  Nevertheless  they  are  full 
of  true  practical  wisdom,  which  it  would  be  folly  to 
regard  as  something  separate  from  religion.     The  idea 

151 


152  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

contained  in  them  is,  that  we  are  not  to  expect  to  be 
always  engaged  in  what  we  may  consider  important 
undertakings,  or  to  be  always  making  what  we  may 
consider  rapid  progress.  We  must  at  times  be  content 
with  work  that  appears  to  us  very  humble,  and  with 
progress  that  appears  to  us  very  slow ;  with  only  a 
little  here,  and  a  little  there. 

This  is  just  one  of  the  most  necessary  lessons  for 
the  enthusiastic,  the  zealous,  and  the  half-informed. 
They  are  always  looking  for  what  they  regard  as  great 
things.  They  are  always  impatient  of  delay.  But  if 
they  would  add  knowledge,  and  wisdom,  the  fruit  of 
knowledge,  to  their  zeal,  they  would  learn  that  there 
is  "a  day  of  small  things"  as  well  as  a  day  of  great 
things.  Resistance  of  one  kind  or  another,  from  one 
quarter  or  another,  is  always  springing  up  to  hinder 
our  undertakings;  and  so  seldom  indeed  would  it  be 
good  even  for  a  good  cause  to  have  every  thing  its 
own  way,  that  the  days  of  small  things  are  to  the  days 
of  great  things  as  thousands  to  one.  The  man  who  is 
wise  in  knoAving  this,  while  he  sets  before  himself  what, 
according  to  the  light  that  is  in  him,  he  conceives  to 
be  the  highest  and  best  objects,  and  lives  for  them, 
will  not  be  discouraged  because  he  finds  that  he  can 
seldom  do  more  than  ''a  little  here,  and  a  little 
there." 

In  nature,  as  we  are  beginning  to  understand,  all 
great  changes  are  effected  very  gradually  and  very 


HERE   A    LITTLE,  THERE   A   LITTLE.  153 

slowly.  Continents  are  not  built  up,  mountain  ranges 
are  not  elevated,  oceans  are  not  excavated  by  sudden 
efforts.  These  grand  operations  are  carried  through 
so  gradually,  that  the  rate  of  progress  is  quite  inap- 
preciable to  man,  even  when  by  the  aid  of  letters  his 
memory,  or  rather  his  view  of  the  past,  is  enabled  to 
reach  back  for  three  or  four  thousand  years.  These 
things  have  been  done  over  the  whole  of  our  earth,  so 
as  to  make  every  part  of  its  surface  what  it  now  is; 
the  same  causes,  producing  similar  results,  are  every 
where  in  operation  at  this  moment;  but  the  rate  at 
which  the  progress  has  been,  and  is  still  being  carried 
on,  is  inconceivably  slow. 

Add  another  remark:  this  slow  rate  of- progress  in 
nature  is  God's  work.  It  comes  from  His  mind.  It 
is  His  doing.  He  it  is  who  is  so  many  thousands  of 
years  in  excavating  the  bed  of  an  ocean,  and  in  con- 
structing a  continent.  And  the  agents  He  employs 
for  doing  His  work  are  either  themselves  so  small,  or 
must  work  so  slowly,  that  any  rapid  progress  is 
simply  impossible.  Perhaps  large  districts  of  future 
continents  are  being  formed  from  fragments  of  micro- 
scopic animalcules;  while  the  now  existing  continents 
are  being  worn  away  by  the  gradual  erosion  of  rains, 
and  rivers,  and  tides,  and  waves,  and  winds,  and  frost. 
In  these  things  God  does  every  thing  very  gradually, 
^'a  little  here,  and  a  little  there." 

Now  it  is  probable   that  the  Being  who  thinks  it 


154  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

best  to  act  in  this  way  with  respect  to  the  material 
world  in  which  He  has  placed  man,  will  act  in  a  sim- 
ilar way  with  respect  to  man  himself;  man  and  the 
world  in  which  he  is  placed  being  the  correlated  parts 
of  one  plan.  The  same  mind  underlies  and  regulates 
the  progress  of  both.  When  we  come  to  the  facts  of 
the  case,  we  find  that  they  support  the  supposition. 
The  greatest  event  that  has  taken  place  in  the  history 
of  the  world  was  the  development  and  establishment 
of  our  religion ;  and  how  instructive  is  the  review  of 
the  gradual  way  in  which  it  was  brought  about !  Take 
the  particulars  as  they  are  recorded  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  Sin  entered  into  the  world  when  the  first 
man  transgressed.  But  how  many  thousand  years 
elapsed  before  the  appearance  on  the  scene  of  Him 
who  was  to  overcome  sin,  and  to  be  our  guide  into  the 
perfect  way  of  righteousness!  The  steps  by  which 
God  prepared  the  world  for  His  coming  were  slow  and 
gradual,  almost  beyond  any  thing  we  can  imagine. 
The  patriarchs,  the  chosen  people,  the  law  given 
through  Moses,  the  prophets,  were  only  a  few  of  the 
later  steps  in  the  long  line  of  events,  which  issued  at 
last,  when  the  fulness  of  time  was  come,  in  the  state 
of  necessary  preparation.  In  other  parts  of  the  world 
other  lines  of  events  had  to  be  carried  through,  and 
other  equally  necessary  results  matured.  Millennium 
after  millennium  was  required  for  this  purpose,  and 
was  passed  in  this  way. 


HERE   A    LITTLE,   THERE   A    LITTLE.  155 

Then,  when  all  things  were  at  last  made  ready, 
consider  how  gradually  the  actual  establishment  of 
the  Gospel  was  brought  about.  It  was  not  done  by  a 
sudden  decree,  or  by  an  instantaneous  exercise  of 
omnipotence.  The  Saviour  appeared  as  an  infant, 
and  grew  to  man's  estate  just  like  any  other  child  of 
man.  He  then  delivered  the  Gospel  by  the  slow  pro- 
cess of  preaching  it — a  process  necessarily  of  some 
years.  He  was  then  content  to  leave  this  earth 
without  having  effected  its  establishment.  Were 
there  half-a-dozen  persons  in  all  who  understood  His 
Gospel  and  believed  on  Him  at  the  time  when  He 
gave  up  the  ghost  on  the  Cross?  Certainly  there 
were  not.  And  so  the  Apostles  were  commissioned, 
and  instructed  by  the  Spirit,  and  sent  forth  to  continue 
the  preaching  the  Lord  had  commenced.  In  this 
gradual  way  the  Gospel  of  man's  redemption  was 
begun  to  be  spread  and  established  in  the  world.  The 
rule  observed  was  that  of  working  gradually,  ^'a  little 
here,  and  a  little  there." 

Nearly  two  thousand  years  have  passed  since  that 
time ;  and  in  what  way  and  at  what  rate  has  the 
Gospel  been  advancing  over  the  world?  Only  very 
gradually.  Many  countries  it  has  not  yet  reached. 
In  some  it  has  receded.  This  is  one  of  those  eras  in 
which  visible  progress  is  being  made ;  but  still  it  is 
not  being  made  in  the  way  in  which  zeal  would  have 
anticipated,  but  through  events  which  it  took  who  can 


156  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

tell  how  many  thousands  of  years  to  arrive  at  ?  The 
chief  cause  of  its  present  spread  is,  that  at  length, 
through  the  progress  of  science,  and  from  political 
and  economical  causes,  some  of  the  nations  that  have 
received  Christianity,  and  above  all  others  our  ov/n 
countrymen,  are  now  able  to  penetrate  to  and  establish 
themselves  in  the  wide  waste  places  of  the  earth. 

I  have  still  to  show  what  practical  bearing  these 
remarks  have  upon  ourselves,  upon  our  thoughts,  our 
feelings,  and  our  conduct.  The  lesson  which  stands 
out  upon  the  surface  of  what  we  have  been  considering 
is,  that  what  we  are  called  to  is  to  work,  and  still  to 
work  on,  and  to  faint  not.  And  we  must  not  judge 
of  the  value  of  our  work  by  the  success  which  has 
attended  it,  or  by  the  rapidity  of  its  progress.  The 
questions  we  must  ask  ourselves  are  such  as  whether 
our  work  is  precious  in  the  sight  of  God,  who  judges 
not  as  men  judge,  by  immediate,  tangible,  ponderable 
results  ?  And  are  its  effects  good  upon  our  own  char- 
acters? These  are  quite  distinct  questions  from  what 
is  the  amount  of. effect  it  has  had  upon  others  and 
upon  the  world.  We  are  too  much  disposed,  in 
forming  our  estimates,  only  to  regard  the  latter  con- 
sideration. This  is  a  mistaken  and  unfortunate 
way  of  judging.  If  the  Omnipotent  and  All-wise  is 
content  to  work  slowly,  why  should  we  be  impatient? 
The  motto  of  him  who  in  this  respect  has  learnt  of 
God,  and  who  has  in  himself  the  mind  that  was  in 


HERE    A    LITTLE,   THERE   A    LITTLE.  157 

Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  will  be,  Rest  not,  Haste  not. 
Trust  in  God. 

I  say  that  one  way  of  estimating  our  work  is  to 
consider  in  what  way  God  will  estimate  it.  Remem- 
ber, God  does  not  require  one  man  to  do  every  thing, 
nay,  not  even  to  do  much ;  any  more  than  He  requires 
one  generation  of  men  to  do  every  thing,  or  even  to 
do  much.  What  He  requires  of  a  man  is  that  he 
should  do  what  He  has  set  him  to  do,  and  what  He 
has  set  him  to  do  is  that  he  should  with  all  his  heart 
do  and  bear  whatever  it  is  evident  to  conscience  with 
common  sense  for  its  assessor  he  is  called  upon  to  do 
and  to  bear.  Lazarus  was  called  to  suffering ;  to  bless 
God  under  the  deprivation  of  all  that  is  pleasant  to 
flesh  and  blood ;  and  furthermore,  in  the  midst  of 
much  that  is  most  distressing.  Here  the  busy  philan- 
thropist or  the  eager  controversialist  might  say  was  a 
form  of  life  in  which  no  one  particle  of  work  could 
be  done.  How  could  he  who  was  so  circumstanced  be 
useful  to  any  one?  But  God  does  not  think  in  this 
way,  otherwise  He  would  at  once  ordain  that  there 
should  be  no  more  Lazaruses  upon  earth.  Nay, 
rather  looking  upon  this  poor  sufferer  as  occupying  a 
place  in  a  great  plan  ordained  by  God,  we  must  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  his  life  was  one  of  great  use- 
fulness, issuing  in  great  reward.  Considered  in  this 
light  we  can  understand  that  his  abject  condition,  his 
penury  of  every  thing  that  makes  life  desirable  to  the 
14 


158  EXTEMPORARY   PREACIimG. 

multitude,  his  having  none  but  God  to  help  him,  his 
pain-racked,  corruption-eaten  body,  were  to  a  large 
portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  a  self-willed,  and  self- 
seeking  capital,  a  very  intelligible  call  to  think  of 
God  and  of  a  day  to  come ;  a  call  to  feel  for  the  dis- 
tressed ;  and,  as  stewards  of  God's  bounties  for  this 
very  purpose,  to  succor  them  ;  a  call  to  consider  the 
conditions  God  has  imposed  on  human  life,  as  for 
instance  the  frail  tenure  by  which  they  themselves 
held  their  good  things,  their  health,  their  wealth,  and 
all  their  temporal  advantages.  Who  could  tell  how 
soon  he  might  not  himself  be  made  in  some  respect  or 
other  no  better  than  this  poor  beggar  ?  The  daily 
sight  of  so  abject  a  sufferer  possibly  was  a  more  ef- 
fectual sermon  to  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  than 
all  the  preaching  of  all  who  then  sat  in  Moses'  seat. 
He  who  could  do  nothing  may  have  done  more,  with- 
out opening  his  mouth,  than  they  all  with  all  their  learn- 
ing,  position,  and  influence.  And  we  are  told  how 
highly  God  estimated  his  work,  for  He  took  him  to 
Himself.  If  a  man  is  honest  and  enduring,  if  he  is 
resigned  and  self-denying,  if  he  is  pure  and  true,  is 
he  not  doing  God's  work  ?  And  is  not  the  light  that 
shines  from  him  that  which  God  approves  ?  Is  this 
work  that  God  will  think  lightly  of  ?  We  must  bring 
this  home  to  ourselves.  What  is  required  of  us  is  not 
great  results  as  men  count  greatness ;  if  it  were,  few 
men  would  ever  have  done  God's  work  in  the  world. 


159 

Rather  let  us  feel  that  there  never  lived  a  man  who 
loved  and  trusted  God,  who  believed  in  His  justness 
and  goodness,  who  walked  as  in  His  presence,  but  did 
His  work  abundantly  and  acceptably. 

I  just  now  mentioned  another  way  of  estimating  our 
work — that  of  considering  the  effect  it  has  upon  our 
own  character.  We  are  told  that  there  are  men  who 
will  say  at  the  judgment,  "  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not 
cast  out  devils  in  Thy  name  ?  and  in  Thy  name  done 
many  marvellous  things?"  to  whom  the  Lord  will  say, 
''Depart  from  me,  for  I  never  knew  you,  ye  workers 
of  iniquity."  These  were  they  who  were  called  to 
great  position  and  opportunities,  who  had  power, 
wealth,  authority,  influence,  learning, .  culture,  intel- 
lectual capacity ;  and  who,  merely  because  it  was  their 
place  to  do  it,  did  something,  a  thousand-fold  be  it, 
more  than  the  humbly  placed  could  appear  to  do ;  but 
the  love  of  what  is  good  and  true  and  gentle,  that  is 
the  love  of  God,  the  one  source  of  all  excellence,  was 
not  in  them ;  and  so  what  they  did  had  no  good  effect 
upon  their  hearts.  They  did  not  become  better  men, 
more  loving,  more  self-denying,  more  patient,  more 
gentle.  Estimate  then  the  work  you  have  done,  and 
are  doing,  in  this  way:  not  by  attempting  to  measure 
its  effects  upon  others,  but  by  measuring  its  effects 
upon  yourself.  Estimated  by  this  standard,  many  a 
man  whose  life-long,  daily,  lowly,  monotonous  occupa- 
tion has  been  in  the  workshop  or  at  the  plough,  has 


160  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

worked  to  better  purpose  in  the  eyes  of  the  great 
Task-master,  has  become  more  purified,  better  in- 
structed, more  sanctified,  brought  nearer  to  God  by 
his  work,  than  some  of  those  who  in  the  world's  esti- 
mation have  occupied  a  high  place  among  its  benefac- 
tors. 

These  considerations  throw  some  light  upon  those 
graces  which  are  more  especially  Christian,  enabling 
us  to  see  what  they  are  in  themselves,  and  what  they 
are  good  for.  For  instance,  they  help  us  to  compre- 
hend the  meaning  of  Humility.  If  the  opportunities, 
and  means,  and  endowments  God  has  vouchsafed  to 
us  are  but  small,  if  He  allows  us  to  do  but  little,  and 
to  advance  in  doing  that  little  but  slowly,  when  we 
have  learnt  of  G-od  the  lesson  before  us  to-day  we  shall 
acquiesce.  We  shall  feel  and  understand  that  His 
mind  is  in  the  matter;  that  it  is  in  this  way  that  He 
has  thought  it  best  to  deal  with  us.  Yv^e  shall  be  con- 
tented, thankful,  hopeful,  trustful.  AYe  shall  not 
complain  because  He  has  not  allowed  us  a  wider  field, 
or  called  us  to  greater  things.  Such  is  the  spirit  of 
Christian  Humility. 

Again,  the  facts  and  the  thoughts  that  have  been 
before  us  show  how  necessary  a  part  of  the  Christian 
character  is  Perseverance,  that  patient  continuance 
in  well-doing  of  which  we  read.  We  must  not  be  dis- 
couraged at  finding  that  we  have  nothing  of  impor- 
tance to  do  as  the  world  measures  importance ;  or  that 


HERE   A   LITTLE,  THERE   A   LITTLE.  161 

our  efforts  have  been  attended  with  little  success,  as 
the  world  understands  success.  Our  business  is  to 
persevere  unto  the  end :  the  rest  belongs  to  God. 

"With  Faith  also  the  connection  of  all  this  is  very 
close,  and  well  worthy  of  notice.  It  is  of  the  essence 
of  Faith  to  trust  God  in  all  that  He  does,  and  under 
all  circumstances.  As  soon  as  we  shall  have  learnt 
that  slow  progress  in  every  thing  good  is  a  law  God 
has  imposed  upon  the  course  of  this  dispensation ;  that 
His  plan  here,  certainly  in  things  moral  and  spiritual 
is  not  to  perfect  any  thing,  but  to  allow  of  gradual 
advances  towards  perfection,  for  that  belongs  to,  and 
will  be  consummated  in  a  better  world  than  this;  then 
one  hindrance  to  Faith,  to  childlike  trustful  Faith, 
will  be  at  once  removed.  Men  are  not  dissatisfied  with 
what  they  have  come  to  understand  has  been  ordained 
of  God.  Failures,  disappointments,  repulses  will  not 
then  disquiet.  We  shall  go  on,  knowing  that  to  Avork 
under  these  conditions  belongs  to  this  life,  but  that  it 
will  not  always  be  so.  We  shall  then  travel  along  the 
paths  of  Christian  duty,  upon  which  God  has  placed 
us  severally,  assured  that  the  man  who  is  faithful  in  a 
little,  will  be  accepted  as  though  he  had  been  faithful 
in  much ;  and  that  he  who  gives  the  cup  of  cold  water, 
if  that  is  all  his  opportunities  permit  him  to  do,  shall 
receive  a  disciple's  reward. 


14* 


162         EXTEMPORARY  PREACHIXG. 


Observations  on  the  foregoing  Sermon. 

With  respect  to  the  foregoing  sermon,  I  would  beg 
permission  from  my  younger  brethren  to  point  out  to 
them,  that  its  object  is  not  merely  to  call  attention  to 
a  truth  that  is  of  much  practical  value,  though  it  is 
very  much  overlooked;  but  to  do  it  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  remind  the  hearers  of  a  still  more  important 
truth,  and  one  it  is  which  we  are  only  just  now  be- 
ginning to  understand — that  what  our  religion  is  de- 
pends on  what  our  knowledge  is. 

It  has  no  bearing  on  this  statement  to  reply  that 
among  ourselves  the  ignorant  classes  are  as  susceptible 
of  deep  religious  impressions  as  the  most  instructed, 
because  those  classes  must  always  accept  the  religion 
of  the  age  in  which  they  live,  whatever  it  may  be. 
They  must  accept  it  because  they  have  no  knowledge, 
and  cannot  acquire  any.  The  religion  of  the  age, 
however,  will  be  what  the  knowledge  of  the  age 
makes  it. 

The  idea  of  this  discourse  is  to  make  the  knowledge 
of  a  few  simple  facts  belonging  to  the  domain  of  one 
of  the  physical  sciences,  and  a  few  analogous  facts  of 
Christian  history,  a  ground  for  the  cultivation  of  cer- 
tain Christian  graces.  How  melancholy  a  reflection 
is  it  that  there  are  many  amongst  us  who  would  look 


HERE   A   LITTLE,  THERE   A   LITTLE.  163 

upon  a  Christian  exhortation  founded  on  such  grounds 
as  incongruous,  and  more  likely  to  hinder  than  to  ad- 
vance the  cause  of  religion.  Let  us  consider  what 
this  implies.  It  shows  that  they  regard  religious 
truth  as  incompatible  with  scientific  and  historical 
truth ;  though  scientific  truth  is  simply  the  apprehen- 
sion of  the  ideas  which  were  in  the  mind  of  God 
before  He  embodied  them  in  nature,  and  which  ideas, 
at  the  time  He  set  nature  before  us,  He  gave  us  the 
capacity  and  the  desire  to  master ;  and  though  historical 
truth  is  simply  the  ascertaining  the  events,  with  their 
sequence  and  connection,  which  God  foreordained  and 
brought  about  in  human  afiairs.  Is  it  conceivable 
that  the  knowledge  of  either  of  these  should  in  any 
way  be  opposed  to  religion?  It  is  impossible  that 
such  knowledge  can  take  us  further  from  God.  It 
must  bring  us  nearer  to  Him.  The  more  we  appre- 
hend of  the  principles  on  which  God  acts,  so  much 
the  more  of  His  mind  will  be  in  us.  Or  if  any  object 
to  the  repeated  statements  of  Scripture  that  God's 
works  manifest  to  us  His  mind,  we  may  put  it  differ- 
ently, and  say — so  much  the  more  shall  we  form 
within  ourselves  of  that  mental  and  moral  state  God 
intended  this  knowledge  to  produce.  At  all  events,  to 
confine  ourselves  to  the  particulars  I  have  mentioned 
in  the  foregoing  discourse  ;  we  are  told  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture that  God  requires  man  to  be  humble  and  perse- 
vering, and  to  have  Faith;  and  I  think  it  must  be 


164  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

plain  enough  that  the  few  facts  of  science  and  history 
referred  to  in  the  sermon  agree  with  Holy  Scripture 
in  commending  to  us  these  graces. 

It  is  a  distinct  and  especial  part  of  the  duty  of  the 
Minister  of  the  Word,  as  compared  with  other 
teachers,  to  set  forth  the  connection  and  correlation  of 
all  knowledge.  Hitherto  religious  teachers,  whether 
lay  or  clerical,  have  too  generally  assumed  that  their 
duty  was  directly  the  opposite  of  this.  It  seems  to 
have  been  a  main  object  with  them  to  make  it  appear 
that  religious  knowledge  is  irreconcilably  hostile  to 
other  kinds  of  knowledge,  and  they  to  it.  How  false 
and  mischievous  is  this  position  ! 

The  students  of  any  department  of  human  history, 
or  of  any  of  the  natural  sciences,  are  students  of 
special  branches.  They  carry  on  their  inquiries 
within  certain  restricted  and  defined  limits.  But 
Divinity  is  truly,  and  essentially,  and  alone,  the 
scientia  scientiarum.  If  it  is  not  this,  it  is  nothing 
at  all.  Its  subject-matter  is  all  knowledge.  The 
factors  of  the  religious  ideas  of  any  age  are  all  that 
is  known  at  that  time  of  nature  and  of  man ;  that  is, 
wdiat  is  known  of  the  ways  in  which  God  has  mani- 
fested Himself  in  nature,  and  of  the  ways  in  which 
He  has  constituted  and  dealt  with  ourselves,  which  in- 
cludes our  moral  being,  our  past  history,  and  our  pre- 
sent condition.  The  most  important  source  of  this 
latter  department  of  knowledge  is  the  Holy  Scriptures. 


HERE    A    LITTLE,  THERE   A    LITTLE.  165 

But  thej  are  very  far  indeed  from  containing  or  pro- 
fessing to  contain  all  that  it  is  necessary  we  should 
know  about  ourselves. 

If  we  look  out  over  the  world,  we  still  find  people 
among  whom  religion  is  only  in  its  germ :  a  state  of 
which  history  supplies  us  with  other  instances.  This 
germ  of  religion  is  Fetishism ;  in  other  words,  it  is  the 
religion  of  almost  complete  ignorance.  The  worshipper 
of  a  Fetish  has  no  conception  of  man's  history,  of  him- 
self  indeed  he  can  scarcely  form  any  conception  as  a 
moral  being ;  and  as  to  nature,  all  he  knows  of  it  is 
that  certain  objects  have  certain  properties,  but  his 
knowledge  does  not  go  so  far  as  to  enable  him  to  de- 
fine what  those  properties  really  are,  or  to  connect 
the  properties  of  which  he  has  a  dim  conception  with 
the  objects  to  which  they  rightly  belong.  And  so  he 
worships  a  feather,  or  a  tooth.  As  knowledge  widens 
and  deepens,  so  does  religion  purify  itself.  There  is 
no  denying  this,  unless  one  would  deny  the  teachings 
both  of  observation  and  of  history.  Every  religion 
that  now  exists,  or  that  we  know  of  as  ever  having  ex- 
isted in  the  world,  has  been  in  strict  correlation  to  the 
knowledge  of  those  who  made  it  their  rule  of  life.  As 
knowledge  advances,  religion  advances  2^«r«  passu. 
Religion  is  the  knowledge  men  possess  of  God  and  of 
themselves  used  as  a  means  for  supplying  them  with  a 
rule  of  life. 

Again  then :  how  unfortunate  is  the  opposition  in 


1G6  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

wbich  some  endeavor  to  place  religion  to  science  and 
history.  It  is  most  unfortunate  for  themselves :  for 
those  they  lead,  or  rather  mislead;  and  for  a  time, 
but  only  for  a  time,  for  the  cause  of  religion  itself. 
As  the  difference  between  the  religion  of  Fetishism 
and  our  own  is  simply  a  difference  of  knowledge,  we 
ought  to  hail  every  accession  to  our  knowledge,  be- 
cause it  must  purify,  elevate,  and  strengthen  our 
religion.  The  discoveries  of  Astronomers,  Geologists, 
Botanists,  Zoologists,  and  Chemists,  have  enlarged 
and  rendered  more  impressive  some  of  our  ideas  of 
God.  So  with  those  who  extend  our  knowledge  of  the 
history  and  of  the  nature  of  man.  We  need  not  then 
have  any  dread  of  the  extension  of  knowledge.  If  its 
extension  be,  from  a  religious  point  of  view,  an  evil, 
how  much  have  we  now  to  dread,  for  it  is  certainly 
now  being  extended  with  a  rapidity  wholly  unknown 
in  former  times.  But  what  ground  can  there  be  for 
believing  that  we  have  reached,  or  ever  shall  reach  a 
point  at  which  the  laws  of  mind  will  be  so  far  reversed, 
as  that  knowledge  which  has  hitherto  built  up  shall 
thenceforth  overthrow  religion?  From  a  date  long  an- 
terior to  the  time  of  Galileo,  there  has  existed  a  most 
pernicious  misunderstanding  between  religion  and 
knowledge.  They  have  feared,  hated,  reviled  each 
other.  Under  the  Old  Dispensation  we  see  no  trace 
of  this  feeling.  There  religion  is  distinctly  based  on 
knowledge.     And  now,  again,  there  are  symptoms  of 


HERE   A   LITTLE,  THERE   A   LITTLE.  167 

their  true  relation  to  each  other  being  better  under- 
stood. We  may  say  this  when  "we  see  many  Ministers 
of  Religion  cultivating,  welcoming,  and  dissemina- 
ting knowledge;  and  this  with  a  clear  perception  of 
the  extent  to  which  religion  is  dependent  upon  it ;  and 
when,  on  the  other  hand,  we  see  men  of  science  no 
longer  denouncing  religion,  but  regarding  their  sciences 
as  contributory  to  it. 


SERMON  II. 


"WHAT  AVE   ARE  TO   SEEK    IN  LIFE. 


2  Corinthians  xi.  2i 


"In  labors  more  abundant,  in  stripes  above  measure,  in  prisons 
more  frequent,  in  deaths  oft.  Of  the  Jews  five  times  received  I 
forty  stripes  save  one.  Thrice  was  I  beaten  with  rods,  once  was  I 
stoned,  thrice  I  suffered  shipwreck,  a  night  and  a  day  I  have  been 
in  the  deep;  in  journeyings  often,  in  perils  of  waters,  in  perils  of 
robbers,  in  perils  by  mine  own  countrymen,  in  perils  by  the  hea- 
then, in  perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in  the  wilderness,  in  perils  in 
the  sea,  in  perils  among  false  brethren;  in  weariness  and  pain- 
fulness,  in  watchings  often,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  in  fastinga 
often,  in  cold  and  nakedness." 

This  is  a  description  of  the  life  the  Apostle  Paul 
had  been  passing  for  several  years.  It  was  a  life  of 
ceaseless  toil,  peril,  suffering,  unjust  treatment,  and 
insult.  Many  must  be  struck  with  the  thought  that 
he  who  had  to  bear  all  this  must  have  been  a  very 
wretched  man.  Indeed,  all  who  mif^ht  regard  the 
Apostle's  manner  of  life  from  the  ordinary  point  of 
view,  that  is,  from  the  point  of  view  from  which  most 
168 


WHAT    WE    ARE    TO    SEEK    IN    LIFE.  169 

of  US  regard  our  own  lives,  -would  have  abundant 
reason  for  coming  to  such  a  conclusion.  "  Here," 
they  would  think,  "is  not  one  of  the  circumstances 
which  render  life  agreeable;  no  leisure,  no  home,  no 
display,  no  pleasures;  and  instead  of  these  every  thing 
which  flesh  and  blood  most  shrink  from.  What  a 
miserable  life!  What  a  miserable  man!"  I  cannot, 
I  suppose,  be  w^rong  in  taking  it  for  granted  that  this 
is  the  light  in  which  many  of  those  who  are  now  here 
present  regard  the  description  just  given  of  the 
Apostle's  life. 

There  is,  however,  quite  another  way  of  looking  at 
it,  and  quite  an  opposite  conclusion  to  be  arrived  at 
respecting  it.  I  mean  the  Apostle's  way  of  looking 
at  it,  and  his  conclusion  respecting  it.  Mark,  the 
way  of  looking  at  it,  and  the  conclusion  respecting  it 
of  the  man  who  was  himself  bearing  it  all.  In  men- 
tioning his  labors,  dangers,  and  sufferings,  he  does  not 
do  it  with  the  slightest  thought  of  lamenting  himself, 
or  in  any  way  making  himself  an  object  of  pity.  He 
does  not  at  all  say,  "See  what  a  sufferer,  what  an 
unhappy  man  I  am."  On  the  contrary,  he  speaks  of 
these  things  as  if  he  somehow  or  other  had  satisfaction 
in  thinking  of  them.  The  expression  drops  from  him 
that  "he  glories  in  them."  The  remembrance  of 
them  is  no  more  accompanied  with  any  feeling  of  hu- 
miliation, than  with  any  desire  to  complain.  And  in 
the  following  chapter  we  find  him  going  so  far  as  to 
15 


170  EXTEMPORAPtY    PREACHING. 

say  that  ^'he  takes  pleasure  in  infirmities,  reproaches, 
necessities,  persecutions,  and  distresses."  Nor  has 
he  a  thought  that  fear  of  such  treatment  as  he  had 
himself  received  would  deter  men  from  accepting  the 
Gospel. 

It  may  add  some  weight  to  the  judgment  and  ex- 
ample of  the  Apostle  to  remember  that  no  one  could 
have  obliged  him  to  submit  to  these  miseries.  Had  he 
been  so  minded,  he  might  have  escaped  them  all. 
He  might  have  stayed  quietly  at  home,  and  to  use 
our  way  of  speaking  on  the  subject,  have  enjoyed  life. 
But  this  was  not  what  he  preferred.  With  his  eyes 
open,  seeing  clearly  that  all  these  miseries  would  be 
brought  upon  him,  of  his  own  choice,  and  gladly  too, 
he  went  forth  and  incurred  them  all.  His  address  to 
the  elders  of  Miletum  is  very  moving:  "And  now, 
behold,  I  go  bound  in  the  spirit  unto  Jerusalem,  not 
knowing  the  things  that  shall  befall  me  there:  save 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  witnesseth  in  every  city,  saying 
that  bonds  and  afflictions  abide  me.  But  none  of 
these  things  move  me,  neither  count  I  my  life  dear 
unto  myself,  so  that  I  miglit  finish  my  course  with 
joy,  and  the  ministry,  which  I  have  received  of  the 
Lord  Jesus."  He  says  this  of  himself  in  the  year  in 
which  he  gives  the  account  of  his  life  we  have  in  the 
text.  Shortly  after  his  making  this  statement  to  the 
elders  of  Miletum  of  the  sufferings  he  expected  in 
every  city,  we  find  the  disciples  at  Caesarea  entreating 


WHAT   WE   ARE   TO    SEEK    IN    LIFE.  171 

him  to  have  some  regard  for  his  own  safety,  and  not 
to  go  up  to  Jerusalem;  to  this  entreaty  he  replies, 
"What  mean  ye  to  weep  and  to  hreak  my  heart?  for 
I  am  ready  not  to  be  bound  onl}^,  but  also  to  die  for 
the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus." 

And  furthermore  he  had  now  had  five-and-twenty 
years'  experience  in  this  kind  of  life.  He  knew  the 
hardness  and  the  sharpness  of  all  these  things.  For 
so  many  years  had  they  been  his  daily  lot.  But  long 
experience  had  not  worked  in  him  any  desire  to  shrink 
from  them,  or  escape  from  them.  And  in  this  same 
mind  he  persevered  until  the  end  came,  which  was 
only  a  few  years  later.  He  continued  to  fight  the 
good  fight,  not  reckoning  his  life  dear  unto  himself, 
till  at  length  the  violent  and  painful  death  he  had  so 
long  foreseen  was  inflicted  on  him.  "  Not  tribulation, 
or  distress,  or  persecution,  or  famine,  or  nakedness,  or 
peril,  or  the  sword,  could  separate  him  from  the  love 
of  God  which  was  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  Nay,  in 
all  these  things  he  was  more  than  a  conqueror  through 
Him  that  loved  him." 

The  reciprocal  exclamations  which  closed  the  scene 
between  the  Roman  Governor  Festus  and  King 
Agrippa  on  the  one  side,  and  the  prisoner  Paul  on 
the  other,  place  in  the  strongest  light  the  contrast 
between  the  two  aspects  of  the  Apostle's  life.  The 
Roman  Governor,  taking  the  worldly  view,  considers 
the  Apostle  mad-.     "Paul,"  he  exclaims,  "thou  art 


172  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

beside  thyself."  To  his  mind  it  was  quite  irrational 
to  expose  one's  self  to  dangers  and  inconveniences 
for  spiritual  or  speculative  objects.  And  just  so  it  is 
among  ourselves.  How  many  think  and  talk  in  the 
same  way  of  similar  earnestness  and  self-devotion. 
Paul's  fervid  wish  addressed  to  King  Agrippa  rests 
upon  just  the  opposite  ground:  "I  would  to  God,  that 
not  only  thou,  but  also  all  that  hear  me  this  day,  were 
almost,  and  altogether  such  as  I  am,  except  these 
bonds."  He,  the  poor  prisoner  as  they  thought, 
brought  into  trouble  by  his  ridiculous  hallucinations, 
was  so  satisfied  with,  and  so  happy  in  his  own  condi- 
tion, that  he  could  have  no  more  exalted  wish  for 
them,  king  and  governor  though  they  were,  than  that 
they  should  be  as  he  was,  with  the  exception  of  his 
bonds.  Prisoner  though  he  was,  he  was  in  his  own 
estimation  a  happier  man  than  any  governor  or  king. 
He  would  not  have  changed  his  life,  taking  the  inner 
life  with  the  outer,  for  the  life  of  any  other  man.  He 
had  nothing  better  to  wish  for  them  than  that  they 
should  be  as  he  was. 

So  was  it  with  the  Apostle — him,  who  after  the 
Author  and  Finisher  of  our  Faith,  was  its  great  foun- 
der. But  how  is  it  in  these  matters  with  ourselves  ? 
How  far  are  we  like-minded  with  him  ?  What  are  we 
seeking?  What  are  the  ideas  of  happiness  which  are 
shaping  our  lives  ?  These  are  questions  which  men 
answer   in   most  diverse  ways.      And  probably,  we 


WHAT   WE   ARE   TO    SEEK    IX    LIFE.  173 

sliould  see,  if  we  were  capable  of  taking  all  things 
into  our  consideration,  that  it  is  best  that  it  should  he 
so.  But  Avhat  each  has  to  consider  for  himself  is, 
whether  his  own  ways  are  wise  ?  Whether  it  would 
be  better  for  him  to  take  that  view  of  life  upon  which 
the  Apostle  acted,  or  that  on  which  the  world  acts  ? 
Are  ease,  pomp,  show,  wealth,  pleasure,  self-indul- 
gence, the  best  objects  we  can  set  before  ourselves, 
and  what  .we  ought  to  be  seeking  ?  The  Apostle  did 
not  think  that  these  things  constituted  the  happiness 
of  this  life.  Or  if  he  did,  then  he  thought  that  there 
was  something  more  worthy  of  his  pursuit  than  the 
happiness  of  this  life.  He  took  little  thought  about 
these  things  how  they  befell.  What  he  gave  himself 
up  to  was  the  practice  in  himself,  and  the  extension 
among  his  fellow-men,  of  what  he  had  come  to  know 
was  true,  and  right,  and  good  for  man,  being  the  will 
and  the  truths  of  God ;  and  therefore  beyond  measure 
more  desirable  for  man  than  any  thing  else.  He 
would  do  this  good ;  and  he  would  purchase  the  satis- 
faction of  having  done  it,  at  all  personal  risk  and  sa- 
crifice. If  happiness  means  ease  and  pleasure,  his 
life  proclaims  to  us  that  it  ought  not  to  be  made  the 
end  and  aim  of  our  existence.  Or  if  we  must  seek 
happiness,  it  must  be  a  happiness  of  a  different  kind, 
a  happiness  which  arises  from  our  knowing  that  we 
are  living  for  objects  out  of  ourselves — what  I  just 
mentioned,  for  right,  for  truth,  for  God;  that  we  are 
15^^ 


174  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

seeking  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  rigliteousness, 
and  are  on  God's  side.  These  are  matters  into  which 
a  man  ought  to  look.  A  man  ought  to  be  able  to  give 
a  reason  for  the  conclusions  on  which  he  has  staked 
all  he  has,  nay  all  he  is.  What  else  can  concern  him 
so  much? 

And  here  the  practice  and  the  instincts  of  the  dis- 
ciples of  the  world  appear  to  be  better  than  what  they 
avow  as  their  principles.  They  talk  as  if  ease  and 
pleasure  were  happiness,  and  as  if  they  were  what 
men  ought  to  seek.  But  are  their  lives  always  con- 
sistent Avith  these  ideas?  Do  we  not  see  multitudes 
of  worldly  persons,  I  mean  persons  who  clearly  are 
not  under  the  influence  of  religion,  in  their  practice 
quite  abandoning  all  this  talk  about  ease  and  pleasure 
and  happiness  ?  Do  we  not  see  them  taking  most 
laboriously  some  to  one  pursuit  and  some  to  another? 
This  is  one  of  those  points  in  which  the  children  of 
this  world  are  in  their  generation  wiser  than  the 
children  of  light.  One  will  devote  all  his  powers  to 
the  attempt  to  advance  in  some  branch  of  knowledge, 
or  to  perfect  himself  in  some  branch  of  art.  Another 
will  rise  early,  and  late  take  rest,  and  eat  the  bread 
of  carefulness,  that  he  may  die  a  rich  man.  Another 
will  pass  laborious  days  and  sleepless  nights,  that  he 
may  stand  high  in  reputation  among  men.  Now  these 
persons,  though  professing  to  believe  in  the  world,  and 
to  have  little  religion,  have  thrown  to  the  winds  all 


WHAT   WE   ARE   TO    SEEK    IN   LIFE.  175 

that  the  world  says  about  case  and  pleasure,  and  are 
striving  for  their  particular  objects,  though  not  in  the 
same  spirit,  yet  quite  as  devotedly  as  the  Apostle 
strove  for  his.  When  then  I  see  multitudes  of  the 
disciples  of  the  world  agreeing  with  the  true  disciples 
of  the  heavenly  wisdom  in  devoting  themselves,  with- 
out regarding  labors  and  inconveniences,  to  their  sev- 
eral objects  of  pursuit,  I  must  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  God  has  so  made  men  as  that  they  shall  not  be 
satisfied  with  ease  and  pleasure;  that  whether  they  be 
worldly  or  religious,  they  shall  see  plainly,  almost,  I 
may  say,  in  proportion  to  the  intelligence  God  has 
given  them,  that  such  a  kind  of  life  is  low  and  con- 
temptible, and  that  self-devotion  to  some  pursuit  is  far 
more  desirable. 

There  are  probably  not  many  who  deliberately  give 
themselves  up  to  ease  and  pleasure;  and  of  those  who 
do,  but  a  very  small  proportion  appear  to  be  satisfied 
with  themselves;  that  is  to  say,  are  at  peace  with  their 
own  consciences.  How  frequently  do  we  see  such 
men  restless  and  discontented.  Their  ease  and  plea- 
sure do  not  appear  so  much  like  ease  and  pleasure  as 
like  uneasiness  and  unhappiness. 

I  should  feel  no  hesitation  in  leaving  the  decision 
of  this  question  to  any  audience,  and  least  of  all  to 
one  composed  of  those  whom  circumstances  oblige  to 
pass  a  life  of  toil  and  drudger3^  But  let  us  put  it  to 
ourselves.     Which  of  the  two  lives  is  most  in  accord- 


176  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

ance  -^vith  the  i;iculties  and  purposes  of  our  nature ; 
the  life  of  the  Apostle  y>ho  took  pleasure  in  re- 
proaches, in  necessities,  in  persecutions,  and  distres- 
ses for  Christ's  sake  and  the  Gospel's  sake,  or  his 
-who  said,  "  Soul,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for 
many  years.  Eat,  drink,  and  take  thine  ease?"  You 
feel  that  the  Apostle  respects  himself  and  his  work, 
and  is  to  be  honored,  loved,  imitated,  while  the  other 
man  respects  nothing,  and  is  simply  contemptible. 
If  the  choice  were  offered  to  you,  I  think  you  would 
say,  let  me  be  the  Apostle,  with  all  his  infirmities,  re- 
proaches, necessities,  persecutions,  and  distresses,  and 
not  the  poor  wretch  whose  aspirations  could  not  get 
beyond  eating  and  drinking  and  taking  his  ease. 

It  seems  then  to  come  up  from  the  very  depths  of 
man's  heart  and  mind,  the  thought  having  been  im- 
planted in  him  by  his  Creator,  that  it  is  not  good  for 
him  to  have  his  portion  in  this  life;  that  he  is  not 
here  for  ease  and  pleasure.  We  ought  then  to  take 
counsel  of  this  instinctive  sentiment,  and  to  consider 
how  we  can  live  conformably  to  it.  It  would  be  very 
serviceable  to  bring  this  distinctly  before  our  thoughts, 
and,  if  possible,  to  obtain  our  assent  to  it  as  regards 
ourselves.  Let  us  therefore  put  it  to  ourselves,  each 
to  himself:  "I  am  not  here  to  take  my  ease  and  plea- 
sure, but  to  follow  what  is  true  and  right;  to  do 
whatever  God  calls  me  to  do,  and  to  bear  whatever 
He  lays  upon  me."     Let  us  say  this  to  ourselves,  and 


WHAT   WE   ARE    TO    SEEK    IN    LIFE.  177 

see  whether  we  are  dismayed  at  what  it  means.  Let 
us  consider  whether  we  accept  or  reject  it;  whether 
it  sounds  to  us  proper  and  reasonable,  or  otherwise. 

But  how  shall  we  carry  out  in  action  these  senti- 
ments ?  We  have  the  account  of  the  way  in  which 
the  Apostle  Paul  and  his  fellow- Apostles,  and  of  the 
way  in  which  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  our  faith 
acted  upon  them.  Enough  was  said  in  the  first  part 
of  my  discourse  about  the  Apostle.  Now  look  at  the 
man  Christ  Jesus,  in  whom  dwelt  the  fulness  of  the 
Godhead  bodily.  Even  lie  pleased  not  Himself,  but 
was  made  perfect  by  suffering,  by  labors,  by  self- 
denial — by  what  we  call  working.  For  the  joy  that 
was  set  before  Ilim,  the  joy  of  revealing  and  of  propa- 
gating the  truth,  and  of  doing  good,  He  endured  the 
Cross,  despising  the  shame.  In  this  way  it  was  that 
He  widened  and  relaid  the  foundations  of  the  regene- 
ration of  the  world.  Consider  how  He  labored  and 
how  He  suffered ;  and  remember  that  His  sufferings 
came  upon  Him  as  a  part  of  the  work  He  had  under- 
taken. And  with  respect  to  those  sufferings,  we  are 
sure  that  sorrow  was  not  the  only  feeling  with  which 
He  was  acquainted.  We  know  that  he  thanked  His 
Father  in  heaven  at  the  view  of  the  work  in  which 
He  was  engaged.  And  it  cannot  but  have  been,  that 
in  His  holy  and  self-devoted  life,  the  joy  of  which  the 
Apostle  speaks,  was  deeper  and  more  soul-sustaining 


178  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

than  was   ever  felt  by  any  other  of  all  who  have  been 
on  earth  in  human  form. 

You  see  then,  brethren,  the  vocation  to  which  we 
are  called.  We  must  go  and  do  likewise.  God  gives 
the  opportunities  and  the  powers  for  doin«g  so.  We 
must  put  God,  and  the  truth,  and  goodness  before  every 
thing.  One  good,  holy,  right,  and  godlike  action, 
however  much  self-denial  it  may  need,  and  in  this 
world  of  sin,  such  actions  will  always  imply  self- 
denial,  one  such  action  is  worth  more  than  whole  ages 
of  ease  and  pleasure.  We  cannot  imagine  ourselves 
having  been  endowed  with  our  moral  and  intellectual 
faculties,  having  been  enabled  to  carry  our  thoughts 
beyond  the  limits  of  this  world,  and  to  acquaint  our- 
selves with  God,  merely  that  we  might  labor  and  rest, 
eat  and  drink,  grow  and  decay,  and  die.  The  ideas 
are  incongruous.  No;  the  kind  of  actions  and  the 
kind  of  life  I  have  been  setting  before  you  are  far 
better  and  more  desirable  than  any  thing  self-indul- 
gence can  dream  of.  Am  I,  then,  rich  or  poor  ? 
Young  or  old  ?  A  child  or  a  parent  ?  A  husband 
or  a  wife  ?  A  master  or  a  servant  ?  One  exercising 
authority  or  one  subject  to  it?  Am  I  a  neighbor  to 
others  ?  Am  I  a  Christian  ?  Each  of  these  relations 
indicates  much  that  I  am  called  to  do ;  and  which  I 
may  find  a  satisfaction  in  doing  hardly  of  this  earth, 
because  it  is  a  satisfaction  such  as  the  world  can 
neither  give  nor  take  away.     Each  of  these  relations 


WHAT   WE   ARE    TO    SEEK   IN   LIFE.  179 

is  proof  enough  that  ease  and  pleasure  arc  not  my 
first  aim  Iiere;  for  each  of  them  implies  that  there  is 
somethinfT  for  me  to  do,  the  oblio-ation  to  do  which  I 
cannot  get  rid  of,  because  it  inheres  to  the  relation, 
and  has  upon  me,  as  long  as  the  relation  exists,  prior 
claims  to  any  thing  else. 


Observations   on  the  foregoing  Sermon. 

I  have  two  observations  to  make  on  this  sermon. 
The  first  is,  that  it  supplies  an  instance  of  a  difficulty 
which  often,  as  in  this  case,  becomes  a  fault  in  the 
composition  of  sermons.  It  is  the  difficulty  of  avoid- 
ing the  unpardonable  offence  of  dulness  in  the  state- 
ment of  such  an  argument  as  that  set  forth  in  the 
first  part  of  the  discourse  before  us.  The  object  of 
the  argument  is,  by  calling  attention  to  several  par- 
ticulars of  St.  Paul's  life  in  succession,  to  accumulate 
their  whole  weight  in  favor  of  that  view  of  life  which 
supposes  that  there  is  something  better  worth  seeking 
than  ease  and  self-indulgence.  In  order  that  this 
efi'ect  may  be  produced,  it  is  necessary  to  dwell  for  a 
few  moments  on  each  of  these  particulars.  This  is 
necessary ;  but  the  impression  it  produces  on  the  mind 
of  the  hearers  is  bad.  The  impression  left  is :  this  is 
all  very  true,  but  it  does  not  matter  much  to  me.     In 


180  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

fact,  there  is  nothing  in  it  to  interest  the  thought,  or 
awaken  the  feelings  of  ordinary  hearers. 

Now  this  difficulty  may  be  met  in  two  ways.  First, 
by  delivery.  In  society  it  is  not  uncommon  to  find 
persons  who  have  an  admirable  style  of  talking. 
Their  opinions  are  not  wiser  or  truer  than  the 
opinions  of  multitudes  of  other  men,  but  they  are  very 
much  better  put.  Every  thing  is  worded  so  neatly 
and  clearly,  and  said  in  so  gentle  and  yet  so  decided 
a  manner,  and  in  such  pleasing  tones,  that  one  is 
never  inattentive.  This  is  not  rare  among  conversers, 
but  it  is  rare  among  speakers.  A  speaker,  however, 
of  this  kind  mio-ht  deliver  himself  of  a  statement  as 
dull  as  the  one  before  us  without  its  dulness  being  ob- 
served.    He  has  the  power  of  commanding  attention. 

The  other  way  in  which  such  a  statement  may  be 
deprived  of  its  dulness  would  be  by  presenting  every 
particular  of  it  picturesquely.  This  would  be  done 
by  going  into  details,  by  strong  coloring,  and  gene- 
rally by  calling  in  the  aid  of  the  imagination.  This 
is  the  unvarying  practice  of  many  preachers  whose 
names  are  well  known.  It  is,  however,  the  last 
method  a  man  of  good  taste  and  good  judgment 
would  have  recourse  to.  Such  statements  ought  to 
be  made  with  precision  of  thought  and  in  quiet  lan- 
guage; if  therefore  they  are  decked  out  with  the 
flowers  of  rhetoric,  then  wrong  emphasis  of  particu- 
lars,  disproportion,   and    exaggeration    must   result. 


WHAT   WE    ARE   TO    SEEK   IN    LIFE.  181 

In  this  case  the  speaker  is  not  preaching  or  arguing, 
but  is  merely  delivering  himself  of  so  much  decorated 
rhodomontade.  This  is  what  cannot  be  done  by  a 
Minister  of  the  Word  who  respects  his  subject,  his 
hearers,  or  himself. 

"What  then  is  to  be  done?  Each  must  decide  for 
himself,  whether  he  will  risk  wearying  his  audience  by 
such  statements,  or  whether  he  will  compress  them 
into  half-a-dozen  lines,  or  drop  them  altogether,  and 
set  before  his  hearers  the  point  under  discussion  only 
in  the  light  of  their  own  experience,  or  in  some  such 
way  as  will  bring  them  to  take  a  personal  interest  in 
it. 

The  other  observation  I  have  to  make  upon  the 
foregoing  sermon  is,  that  it  calls  our  attention  to  the 
very  important  question  of  how  the  Gospel  is  to  be 
preached  with  reference  to  those  circumstances  of  the 
present  day  which  are  the  reverse  of  the  circumstan- 
ces of  the  times  when  it  was  first  preached  by  Jesus 
Christ  and  His  Apostles.  It  is  impossible  to  shut  our 
ears  to  the  tone  which  the  New  Testament  emits. 
The  gloomiest  view  is  taken  of  human  life.  Nor  was 
it  possible  that  it  could  have  been  otherwise.  Con- 
sider for  how  many  centuries,  with  how  short  inter- 
vals, the  unhappy  people  to  whom  it  was  addressed 
had  been  trodden  under  foot  of  the  heathen^  Syrians, 
Assyrians,  Egyptians,  Persians,  Greeks,  and  Romans. 
It  is  almost  impossible  for  persons  living  in  these 
16 


182  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

times  to  form  an  adequate  conception  of  the  wretch- 
edness, the  mental  and  moral  degradation  that  this 
had  made  the  normal  condition  of  the  people.  Pro- 
bably no  people  except  the  Jews  could  have  possessed 
sufficient  vitality  to  have  survived  it.  And  it  is  very 
possible  that  the  schooling  of  these  long  grievous  cen- 
turies may  have  given  to  the  race  the  power  which  it 
has  since  shown  of  bearing  up  under  oppression.  We 
may  suppose,  that  for  generation  after  generation 
those  who  had  not  this  power  would  have  a  tendency 
to  die  out;  and  so  this  power  might  become  a  charac- 
teristic of  the  race.  We  can  understand  what  so 
great  and  so  long-continued  suffering  must  have  made 
the  traditions  of  the  time  when  the  Gospel  was  first 
preached.  And  the  facts  of  the  times  were  in  keep- 
ing with  the  traditions:  suffering,  degradation,  sad- 
ness every  where,  and  no  prospect  of  any  improve- 
ment. There  was  no  gleam  of  hope  in  any  direction. 
The  iron  had  entered  into  their  souls.  Who  could 
ever  hope  to  see  the  world-wide,  the  omnipresent,  and 
almighty  despotism  of  Rome  broken  from  off  their 
necks?  They  dreamt  of  a  deliverer,  but  hardly  be- 
lieved in  one.  And  when  Jesus  came  (Himself  a  man 
of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief),  He  could  hold 
out  no  hope  of  any  relief  from  this  dreadful  lot.  They 
must  go  on  suffering;  and  even  worse  things  were  in 
store  for  them.  In  the  world  they  must  have  tribu- 
lation.    This    must    continue,    and    the    climax   of 


WHAT    WE    ARE   TO    SEEK    IN    LIFE.  183 

wretchedness  would  be  reached  in  the  indescribable 
horrors  that  would  attend  the  destruction  of  their 
holy  city.  And  then  would  begin  the  endless  and 
numberless  miseries  of  the  state  in  which  they  would 
neither  have  a  place  nor  nation.  This  will  quite  ex- 
plain the  sadness  that  pervaded  the  first  preaching  of 
the  Gospel,  and  which  has  been  expressed  by  saying 
that  it  is  the  religion  of  sorrow  and  of  the  sorrowful. 

The  conditions  of  life  however  amongst  ourselves  at 
the  present  day  are,  in  the  respects  I  have  been  re- 
ferring to,  the  very  reverse  of  what  they  were  in 
those  times  amongst  the  Jewish  people.  Every  Eng- 
lishman has  for  many  generations  and  centuries  stood 
with  an  unabashed  face  before  the  world  and  towards 
his  fellow-countrymen.  Our  material  prosperity  is 
such  as  the  world  has  never  before  witnessed.  All 
the  causes  of  distress  that  pressed  upon  the  Jew  and 
bore  him  down  to  the  ground  have  been  removed  from 
us.  They  are  unknown  amongst  us,  and  in  their  stead 
we  have,  in  overflowing  abundance,  all  that  in  these 
respects  the  heart  of  man  can  desire. 

The  question  then  arises,  is  that  Christianity  which 
was  addressed  to  a  suffering  and  unhappy  world  ap- 
plicable, and  if  so  how,  to  a  world  that  is  steeped  in 
prosperity  and  happiness?  When  patience,  and  re- 
signation, and  submission  are  preached  to  us,  it  almost 
produces  the  feeling  that  we  are  in  a  position  where 
these  graces  are  not  needed  in  the  sense  in  which  they 


184  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

were  needed  bj  those  who  heard  the  words  of  Christ 
and  His  Apostles.  Thankfulness,  moderation,  and  a 
right  use  of  opportunities  appear  the  more  appropri- 
ate topics  for  exhortation  to  us.  And  this,  I  think, 
makes  us  feel  the  importance  of  the  subject  of  the 
foregoing  sermon,  that  is,  of  the  example  of  the 
Apostle.  If  the  people  who  occupy  our  streets  of 
palaces  and  our  country  houses  are  not  called  to  suffer 
as  the  Apostle  and  his  countrymen  were,  they  are 
assuredly  called  by  the  very  circumstances  in  which 
God  has  placed  them  to  work  as  the  Apostle  did.  And 
they  can  work  under  far  more  easy  and  encouraging 
circumstances.  There  is  a  wide  field  every  where 
open  before  them.  By  working,  I  mean  honestly  en- 
deavoring at  the  sacrifice  of  personal  ease,  and  at  pe- 
cuniary cost,  according  to  their  opportunities  and  abil- 
ities, to  do  good.  And  what  happiness  can  be  greater 
than  that  the  man  is  entitled  to  who  knows  that  he 
has  made  others  wiser,  or  better,  or  happier  than  they 
would  have  been  without  him ;  and  who  feels,  as  he  is 
leaving  the  world,  that  it  is  in  these  respects  his 
debtor  ? 


SERMON  III. 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  UNCLEAN  SPIRIT. 


Luke  xi.  24-26. 


"Wlien  the  unclean  spirit  is  gone  out  of  a  man,  he  walketh 
through  dry  places,  seeking  rest;  and  finding  none,  he  saith,  I 
will  return  unto  my  house  whence  I  came  out.  And  when  he 
Cometh,  he  findeth  it  swept  and  garnished.  Then  goeth  he,  and 
taketh  to  him  seven  other  spirits  more  wicked  than  himself;  and 
they  enter  in  and  dwell  there:  and  the  last  state  of  that  man  is 
worse  than  the  first." 

Several  of  our  Lord's  parables,  as  for  instance 
those  of  the  laborers  hired  at  different  hours,  and  of 
the  man  who  built  a  vineyard  and  let  it  out  to  hus- 
bandmen, have  very  evidently  two  applications :  one 
to  a  particular  passage  in  the  history  of  the  Jewish 
nation ;  the  other  to  individuals  in  all  ages.  So  it  is 
with  the  parable  before  us.  Its  primary  application 
is  to  the  chosen  people.  At  the  preaching  of  the 
Baptist  and  of  Jesus  they  were  much  moved.  They 
showed  some  desire  for  a  closer  walk  with  God.     But 

IG*  185 


186  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHIjS'G. 

they  eventually  fell  back  into  a  worse  state  than  they 
had  ever  been  before ;  for  they  rejected  and  crucified 
Jesus. 

This  makes  clear  what  its  meaning  is  when  it  is  ad- 
dressed to  the  cases  of  individuals.  It  presents  to  us 
a  series  of  pictures  in  the  progress  of  the  man  who 
dies  in  his  sins.  In  the  first  we  behold  him  as  a  man 
possessed  with  an  unclean  spirit.  This  picture  inti- 
mates nothing  of  the  earlier  stages  of  his  course.  We 
are  told  nothing  of  the  steps  which  brought  him  to 
this  state.  Neither  are  we  told  any  thing  of  the  form 
and  character  of  the  wickedness  with  which  he  is 
possessed.  The  forms  of  wickedness  are  infinitely 
various.  The  particular  feature  of  sin  that  is  indi- 
cated in  the  picture,  and  which  is  true  of  all  kinds  of 
sin,  is  that  it  is  working  in  the  man  like  madness. 
The  madman  is  the  victim  of  a  will  which  is  not  the 
offspring  of  reason,  but  is  opposed  to  reason;  and 
which  is  not  in  conformity  to,  but  opposed  to  self- 
interest.  And  yet  it  so  masters  the  man  that  he 
makes  no  effort  to  resist  it.  If  the  voice  of  reason 
could  command,  it  would  be  against  sin.  .If  the  heart 
that  has  had  experience  of  the  miseries  of  sin  could 
choose,  it  too  would  be  against  sin.  But  in  the 
habitual  sinner  both  the  reason  and  the  heart  are  in 
bondage.  The  unclean,  the  mad,  the  senseless  spirit 
has  got  possession  of  them  and  rules  over  them.  It 
urges  the  man  on  to  his  detriment,  to  his  misery,  to 


THE    RETURN    OF   THE    UNCLEAN   SPIRIT.         187 

his  ruin.  You  cannot  in  any  other  way  account  for 
his  actions.  He  is  possessed.  He  is  not  in  his  right 
mind. 

And  now  we  pass  to  the  next  picture.  There  are 
cases  in  which  the  cloud  does  not  rest  uninterruptedly 
on  the  mind  of  the  lunatic.  It  is  drifted  away  for  a 
season :  there  is  again  an  interval  of  light.  Just  so 
is  it  with  the  sinner.  Something  occurs  that  for  a 
time  shakes  and  appears  to  overthrow  the  power  of 
his  tyrant  sin.  God  in  his  inexhaustible  mercy  is  ever 
bringing  this  about  in  many  wa3^s.  He  recalls  to  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  sinner  the  impressions 
and  lessons  he  received  in  early  youth  from  a  wise  and 
good  father,  or  from  an  affectionate  and  religious 
mother.  Or  He  overtakes  him  with  some  deserved 
chastisement :  or  He  surprises  him  with  some  unde- 
served mercy;  or  He  brings  it  about  that  he  should 
witness  some  appalling  occurrence.  God  is  ever 
working  by  some  dispensation  or  other  on  the  heart 
and  the  mind  of  the  sinner :  and  with  apparent  suc- 
cess in  the  case  before  us.  The  unclean  spirit  has 
gone  out  of  the  man.  He  endeavors  to  walk  before 
God  in  his  right  mind.  Was  he  profligate  or  a 
drunkard?  He  loathes  his  former  profligate  and 
drunken  companions.  Was  he  a  Sabbath-breaker  ? 
He  now  has  delight  in  being  on  God's  day  in  God's 
house.  Was  he  revengeful  and  malicious?  He  now 
has  a  pleasure  in  seeking  to  be  at  peace  with  those 


188  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

whom  he  had  formerly  hated.  Was  he  unfair  and 
dishonest  ?  He  is  now  endeavoring  to  make  restitu- 
tion to  those  he  had  wronged.  The  misleading  irra- 
tional will  has  been  overcome  within  him.  The  sight 
is  full  of  promise. 

But  as  we  look  on  the  picture  that  follows,  the  hope 
that  had  been  formed  within  us  is  shaken.  AVe  behold 
the  unclean  spirit  that  had  gone  out  of  the  man, 
which  we  had  looked  to  see  transformed  into  a  right 
spirit,  and  able  to  lead  the  man  on  to  a  good  and 
peaceful  life,  leading  him  "through  dry  places;"  so 
that  though  rest  is  sought,  none  is  found. ^  This  in- 
cident is  described  with  local  propriety.  In  that  hot 
and  dry  climate  there  can  be  no  coolness,  no  re- 
freshing air  unless  water  be  present.  These  things 
can  onl}^  be  found  in  the  valley,  by  the  streamlet's 
side.     There  the  turf  is  green,  the  flowers  sweet  and 

'  It  is  obvious  to  remark  that  we  do  not  express  ourselves  on 
this  subject  in  the  fashion  of  the  parable,  which  of  course  was 
the  fashion  of  expression  used  by  those  to  whom  the  pax-able  was 
addressed.  They  regarded  "the  unclean  spirit"  as  having  a  sep- 
arate existence  from  that  of  the  man.  It  comes  and  goes  at  its 
own  will.  It  returns  eventually,  because  it  is  dissatisfied  with  the 
separation;  and  the  man  becomes  its  helpless  and  unresisting 
victim.  With  us  *'  the  unclean  spirit"  is  a  condition  of  the  man's 
own  spirit.  He  has  powers  within  his  reach  sufficient  for  altering 
this  spirit.  According  therefore  to  our  form  of  expression,  it  is 
the  man  himself  who  expels  the  unclean  spirit,  and  who,  having 
done  so,  wanders  through  dry  places  seeking  rest  and  finding 
none;  and  eventually  relapses  into  his  former  state. 


THE    RETURN    OF    THE    UNCLEAN   SPIRIT.         189 

gay;  the  trees  give  sliade ;  the  air  revives.  But  the 
half-recovered  lunatic  wanders  in  dry  places,  and 
therefore  cannot  but  miss  the  cool  refreshment,  and 
the  rest  he  is  in  search  of.  He  is  still  exposed  to  the 
distressing  glare,  and  the  withering  heat. 

It  often  happens  that  the  sinner  who  is  beginning 
to  fight  against  sin  places  himself  in  similar  circum- 
stances. He  is  entering  on  the  most  difficult  work 
that  can  be  undertaken  by  man  in  this  world.  The 
stream  of  his  life  having  for  many  years  flow^cd  on  in 
a  wrong  direction,  he  is  now  endeavoring  to  make  it 
flow  in  an  opposite  course.  He  has  to  change  the 
Ethiopian's  skin,  and  the  leopard's  spots.  The  war 
in  his  mind  has  commenced.  The  good  of  his  nature 
that  had  been  subdued,  has  now  risen  up  against  the 
evil  that  had  subdued  it.  But  the  strong  man  within, 
well  equipped  and  armed,  is  holding  his  ground  at 
many  points.  If  then  the  would-be  soldier  of  Christ 
is  to  come  off  victorious,  he  must  be  brave,  and  per- 
severing, and  wise. 

Some  there  are  w^ho  think  the  grace  of  God  is  to  do 
every  thing,  and  to  do  it  in  a  moment.  No  such 
thing.  If  God's  almighty  power  -were  all  His  nature 
He  might  do  so.  But  having  other  attributes  He 
does  not  do  so.  He  looks  on,  and  beholds  the  con- 
flict. He  approves,  and  is  a  fellow-worker  with  the 
man.  But  the  man  must  do  much  himself.  And  one 
thing  that  he  must  do  is  that  he  must  act  wisely;  and 


190  EXTEMPORARY    rREACIIING. 

lie  will  be  doing  very  unwisely,  for  he  will  be  bring- 
ing (liscouragcnient  on  himself,  if  he  seeks  for  rest 
"in  dry  places." 

Pcrliapa  lie  has  no  conception  of  any  feeling 
towards  God  excepting  that  of  fear.  lie  never  rises 
to  the  idea  that  God  is  his  Father  in  heaven,  and  that 
he  is  God's  child.  He  does  not  see  that  God  is  love, 
and  that  what  he  is  called  to  is  himself  to  love.  If  a 
man  see  this,  though  he  may  not  have  attained  to  it, 
he  will  be  encouraged  by  the  knowledge  of  it.  lie 
will  feel  that  this  high  state  is  open  to  him.  But 
those  whose  conceptions  do  not  go  beyond  fear,  are  in 
"a  dry  place,"  where  they  can  find  no  rest  for  their 
souls. 

Or  he  may  be  devoting  himself  to  worldly  pursuits 
or  worldly  enjoyments.  I  know  that  neither  the  pur- 
suits nor  the  enjoyments  of  this  world  are  absolutely 
and  in  themselves  wrong.  What  is  wrong  is  to  devote 
one's  self  to  them,  to  give  them  the  best  of  our 
thoughts  and  of  our  aifections;  whereas  there  are 
higher  things,  the  things  of  the  soul,  and  of  God, 
things  whereby  others  may  be  benefited  and  ourselves 
lifted  into  a  higher  region  of  thought  and  feeling, 
which  ought  to  be  sought  first.  To  invert  the  com- 
parative value  of  the  two,  to  put  first  what  ought  to 
be  second,  is  again  to  seek  rest  in  "a  dry  place," 
where  it  cannot  be  found. 

But  the  driest  of  all  dry  places  in  which  to  seek 


THE   RETURN    OF   THE    UNCLEAN  SPIRIT.         191 

it,  is  the  retention  of  some  sin.  An  unclean  spirit 
is  cast  out  in  order  to  pacify  the  conscience,  and  to 
obtain  peace  from  God.  But  it  is  impossible  that 
these  objects  can  be  attained  if  a  place  in  tlic  heart 
be  still  allowed  to  another  unclean  spirit.  And  yet 
we  see  this  being  done  every  day.  Violence  of  tem- 
per, or  an  uncharitable  way  of  thinking  of  others,  or 
arrogance,  or  covctousness,  or  envy,  is  retained  while 
something  else  is  given  up.  IIoav  unmerciful  would 
God  be,  if  He  allowed  these  persons  to  find  rest  unto 
their  souls  ! 

The  picture  again  changes;  but  we  were  almost 
prepared  for  what  we  now  behold.  lie — the  parable 
says  the  unclean  spirit,  but  it  will  be  more  intelli- 
gible for  us  to  say  the  man — returns  to  his  house 
whence  he  had  come  out.  This  was  not  a  sudden 
thought,  but  the  result  of  a  deliberation  consequent 
on  his  finding  no  rest.  lie  looks  in  again  at  his  old 
haunts.  lie  there  finds  everything  ready  to  receive 
him,  and  very  inviting — empty,  swept,  and  garnished. 
Something  seems  to  say  to  him,  "Enter  again,  and  as 
of  old  every  thing  you  desire  sliall  be  ministered  to 
you."  He  docs  not  resist.  He  enters.  All  the 
progress  he  had  made  is  lost.  The  relapse  is  com- 
plete. Every  one  of  us  must  in  some  matter  or  other 
have  exhibited  in  himself  such  a  picture  as  this.  Re- 
member that  two  reasons  are  suggested — that  he  found 
no  rest  in  his  new  ways  of  life,  and  that  ho  allowed 


192  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

his  thoughts  to  go  back  to  his  old  ways.  He  set  his 
hand  to  the  plough,  but  finding  the  work  distasteful 
he  looked  back  again  to  his  former  state  of  idleness ; 
and  then  he  gave  over  work.  He  expected  an  impos- 
sibility ;  that  the  new  way  would  be  immediately  easy 
and  pleasant.  As  well  might  you  expect  to  learn  any 
art  or  trade  by  wishing  for  a  knowledge  of  it ;  or  to 
find  an  oak-tree  the  growth  of  anight.  Perseverance 
and  prayer  were  the  means  by  which  the  old  man  was 
to  be  exorcised,  and  the  new  man  formed  within  him. 

But  the  history  is  not  yet  all  told ;  one  more  scene 
is  presented  to  us,  and  that  is  the  final  one.  No 
further  struggle  is  made.  The  surrender  is  complete. 
The  returning  unclean  spirit  goes  and  takes  to  him- 
self seven  others,  more  wicked  than  himself;  and 
they  are  all  allowed  to  enter  into  the  man's  heart  and 
dwell  there.  His  last  state  is  worse  than  his  first ; 
and  so  he  ends.  An  army  that  has  been  thoroughly 
beaten  and  routed  cannot  renew  the  conflict.  It  has 
been  demoralized  and  weakened  by  the  defeat,  and 
the  enemy  has  become  relatively  much  stronger. 

The  case  resembles  those  of  whom  we  are  told 
"  that  it  is  impossible  for  them  who  were  once  en- 
lightened ;  and  have  tasted  of  the  heavenly  gift,  and 
were  made  partakers  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  have 
tasted  the  good  word  of  God ;  and  the  powers  of  the 
world  to  come ;  if  they  shall  fall  away,  to  renew  them 
again  to  repentance ;  seeing  they  crucify  the  Son  of 


THE   RETURN   OP   THE    UNCLEAN   SPIRIT.         193 

God  afresh,  and  put  Ilim  to  an  open  shame."  And 
again  :  "  If  wc  sin  wilfully  after  that  we  have  received 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  there  remaineth  no  more 
sacrifice  for  sin,  but  a  certain  looking  for  of  judgment, 
and  of  fiery  indignation."  And  so  says  St.  Peter: 
"  For  it  had  been  better  for  them  not  to  have  known 
the  way  of  righteousness,  than,  after  having  known 
it  to  turn  from  the  holy  commandment  delivered  unto 
them.  But  it  happened  to  them  according  to  the  true 
proverb ;  The  dog  is  turned  to  his  own  vomit  again, 
and  the  sow  that  was  washed  to  her  wallowing  in  the 
mire." 

What  can  be  more  appalling!  But  I  cannot  leave 
the  subject  in  this  position.  As  a  minister  of  the 
Word  of  God  I  must  say  that  that  Word  contains 
statements  that  counteract  the  sense  of  dead  hope- 
lessness, and  of  blank  despair  which  what  has  just 
been  said  would  leave  on  the  mind.  How  much,  for 
instance,  is  there  in  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son  to 
tell  us  of  the  inexhaustible,  the  infinite  mercy,  nay, 
love  of  God.  And  does  not  the  idea  pervade  all 
Scripture,  that  our  Father  in  heaven  is  not  willing 
that  any  of  His  children  should  perish,  but  that  all 
should  come  to  Him,  and  that  all  should  be  saved  ? 
And  we  are  told  that  the  time  will  come  when  the  Son 
shall  have  given  up  every  thing  to  the  Father;  and 
so  this  dispensation  shall  have  come  to  an  end.  And 
if  it  shall  have  come  to  an  end,  then  we  cannot  believe 
17 


194  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

that  suffering  and  sin  mil  remain  as  a  residuum  of  it ; 
for  we  need  not  believe  that  they  existed  before  it, 
and  independently  of  it.  At  all  events,  we  are  told 
that  "God  will  be  all  in  all."  And  if  He  shall  be  all 
in  all,  then  there  can  be  no  more  sin  oT  suffering;  or 
any  thing  to  oppose  itself  to  His  will. 

The  distress  of  mind  which  arises  at  considering  the 
Scripture  that  has  been  before  us,  must  have  been  in- 
tended to  arise.  As  this  is  its  legitimate  effect,  it 
must  have  been  intended.  But  neither  may  we  forget 
the  opposite  conclusions  which  several  particular 
statements  of  God's  Word  were  equally  intended  to 
leave  on  the  mind.  And  if  any  find  a  difficulty  in 
reconciling  these  opposite,  though  I  think  not  contra- 
dictory, truths,  they  must  hold  them  both.  When 
they  think  of  themselves,  they  may  dwell  on  the  first. 
When  they  think  of  God  they  must  dwell  on  the  last. 
We  know  little  now.  We  shall  be  able  to  reconcile 
them  when  we  know  all  things  even  as  we  are  now 
known  of  God. 


Observations  on  the  foregoing  Sermon. 

It  is  a  difficult  task  to  give  in  a  sermon  a  continu- 
ous comment  on  a  narrative  used  as  text;  especially 
when,  as  is  generally  the  case  with  our  Lord's  parables, 
it  is  impossible  to  add  any  thing  either  to  the  clearness 


THE    RETURN    OF   THE    UNCLEAN   SPIRIT.         195 

or  forciblencss  of  the  original.  The  reader  must  de- 
cide whether  to  his  mind  any  thing  has  been  gained 
in  the  case  of  the  one  before  us  by  dividing  the  story 
into  what  may  be  compared  to  the  acts  of  a  drama, 
and  endeavoring  to  connect  each  with  the  personal 
experience  of  the  hearers. 

I  endeavor  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sermon  to  avoid 
a  mistake  which  many  sermon-writers  and  commenta- 
tors are  apt  to  fall  into  ;  the  mistake  of  supposing  that 
their  work  is  done  when  they  have  explained  the 
meaning  of  the  text  and  founded  some  exhortation 
upon  it.  It  often  happens  that  a  very  important  part 
of  their  work  still  remains  to  be  done,  that  of  showing 
the  relation  in  which  the  meaning  of  their  text  stands 
to  other  parts  of  Scripture  which  have  a  bearing 
upon  it. 


SERMON  IV. 


THE  CENTURIOX  OF  CESAREA. 


Acts  x.  1,2, 
"There  was  a  certain  man  in  Caesarea  called  Cornelius,  a  cen- 
turion of  the  band  called  the  Italian  band,  a  devout  man,  and  one 
that  feared  God  with  all  his  house,  which  gave  much  alms  to  the 
people,  and  prayed  to  God  alway." 

This  is  the  cliaracter  given  of  the  man  who  was  the 
first  to  leave  heathenism,  and  enter  the  Church  of 
Christ.  Some  of  us,  as  we  heard  it  read,  may  have 
thought  that  it  was  the  description  of  an  ordinarily 
good  and  religious  man  ;  and  of  what  might  have  been 
expected  to  be  the  conduct  of  such  a  one.  And  I 
shall  endeavor  to  show  why  it  is  so ;  and  that  there  is 
nothing  accidental  about  any  one  of  the  particulars  of 
his  character,  or  of  his  conduct.  We  shall  understand 
the  man  when  v/e  have  made  out  the  reasons  that  ex- 
isted for  what  we  are  told  of  him,  and  seen  the  con- 
nection of  the  several  statements. 

We  have  just  heard,^  as  the  chapter  from  which  our 

»  This  sermon  was  preached  on  Dec.  10,  1865,  on  which  day 
Acts  X.  is  read  as  the  Second  Lesson  for  the  Morning  Service. 

196 


THE   CENTURION    OF    C.ESAREA.  197 

text  is  taken  was  read,  that  this  first  Gentile  convert 
was  admitted  to  the  Christian  Church  bj  the  Apostle 
Peter;  and  we  saw  that  he  would  have  been  so  un- 
willing to  have  done  this  that  a  miraculous  interposi- 
tion was  needed  to  persuade  him.  And  even  after  he 
had  been  commanded  bj  a  vision  to  undertake  the 
work,  he  speaks  in  an  apologetic  tone  of  what  he  had 
come  to  do.  Eight  years  had  passed  since  his  Lord 
had  sent  him  forth  to  establish  His  kingdom,  but  Peter 
tells  us  he  still  rigidly  observed  the  ceremonial  law  of 
Moses — he  had  never  eaten  any  thing  which  according 
to  that  law  was  common  or  unclean.  lie  asserts  that 
it  is  an  unlawful  thing  for  a  man  that  is  a  Jew  to  keep 
company  with,  or  to  come  unto  one  of  another  nation ; 
and  he  enters  into  explanations  to  justify  himself  for 
being  engaged  in  receiving  a  Gentile  into  the  Christian 
Church.  Compare  this  with  the  way  in  which  his 
fellow-Apostle  Paul  speaks  of  the  same  occurrence  in 
the  Scripture  you  have  just  heard  read  as  the  Epistle 
for  the  day.^  He  is  all  eagerness  to  justify  the  ad- 
mission of  the  Gentiles;  and  to  show  from  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  Old  Dispensation  that  their  admission  had 
been  originally,  and  all  along  intended.  How  hesita- 
tingly does  St.  Peter  make  up  his  mind  to  receive 
Cornelius ;  how  gladly  would  St.  Paul  have  welcomed 
him  !     Whence  this  difference  ?     Some  perhaps  may 

2  Rom.  XV.  4.     The  Epistlo  for  tlic  Second  Sunday  in  AdvenU    - 
17* 


198  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

be  in  the  habit  of  suj^posing  that  in  matters  of  this 
kind  there  neither  was,  nor  could  have  been  any  dif- 
ference between  two  Apostles.  But  what  is  thus  in 
the  Scriptures  for  this  present  service  forced  on  our 
attention  will  correct  us  in  this  mistake.  "We  may 
feel  a  little  surprise  at  the  discovery,  and  even  a 
slinfht  reluctance  to  acknowledsfe  it;  but  as  the  sur- 
prise  and  reluctance  were  the  result  of  a  mistake,  the 
discovery  and  acknowledgment  of  the  mistake  will  be 
of  advantage  to  us.  We  shall  then  see,  what  will  im- 
part a  far  more  life-like  interest  to  what  we  read  in 
God's  Word,  that  a  man's  having  been  called  to  become 
an  Apostle  did  not  obliterate  his  natural  character; 
but  that  he  became  an  Apostle,  retaining  the  char- 
acter he  had  previously  possessed.  See  the  character 
respectively  of  St.  Peter  and  of  St.  Paul  as  reflected 
by  their  conduct  in  reference  to  the  admission  of  the 
Gentiles.  St.  Peter  evidently  was  a  man  who  was 
capable  of  receiving  new  ideas,  for  he  had  received 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ ;  but  he  was  at  the  same 
time  a  man  who  was  incapable  of  giving  up  old  ideas, 
for  he  could  not  abandon  the  ceremonial  law  in  Avhicli 
he  had  been  brought  up,  although  the  purpose  of  that 
law  had  now  been  served  in  brin2;in"j  him  to  Christ. 
St.  Paul,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  man  who  felt  so 
strongly  whatever  he  accepted,  that  he  rejected  what- 
ever was  opposed  to  it,  however  dearly  he  might  pre- 
viously have  cherished  it.     When  his  faith  was  that  of 


THE   CENTURION  OF   C^SAREA.  199 

a  Jew  he  would  have  destroyed  all  belief  in  Christ. 
No  sooner  was  he  converted  to  Christ  than  he  gave 
himself  up  wholly  to  preaching  the  faith  he  for- 
merly had  persecuted.  The  observances  of  the  law 
had  no  longer  any  attraction  for  him.  There  was  no 
reservation  in  his  feelings.  What  he  felt  he  felt  with 
all  his  heart.  What  he  did  he  did  with  all  his  might. 
He  would  straightway  have  the  old  typical  and  cere- 
monial observances  abolished  utterly ;  and  the  Gospel, 
pure  and  simple,  preached  to  every  creature.  To 
suppose  that  all  the  instruments  we  find  employed  by 
God  in  the  establishment  of  the  Gospel  were  brought 
precisely  to  the  same  state  of  mind,  renders  it  impos- 
sible for  us  to  understand  much  that  is  recorded  in 
the  sacred  page  itself;  and  also  deprives  us  of  one 
fertile  source  of  interest  in  reading  it — that  which 
arises  from  the  contemplation  of  the  varieties  of  human 
character  and  feelings  as  they  exhibit  themselves  in 
the  working  out  of  the  great  purpose. 

But  what  I  have  now  to  speak  to  you  about  is  the 
description  given  of  Cornelius,  and  how  that  came  to 
be  the  character  of  the  man  who  was  selected  as  the 
first-fruits  to  Christ  of  all  the  Gentile  world. 

We  are  told  first  of  all  that  he  was  "a  devout 
man."  The  thought  probably  that  is  called  up  in  the 
minds  of  many  as  they  hear  this  said  is  that  of  devoutr 
ness  as  we  see  it  around  us,  and  feel  it  in  ourselves, 
that  is  to  say,  we  think  of  a  man   being  devout  as  a 


200  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

Christian.  "VVe  think  of  Christian  devoutness.  To 
some  it  may  even  sound  strange  and  novel  to  have 
any  other  kind  suggested  to  them.  But  devoutness, 
or  a  sense  of  the  existence  of  God,  and  of  the  relation 
in  which  man  stands  towards  Him,  is  one  of  the  con- 
stituent elements  of  the  common  mental  or  spiritual 
nature  of  man.  In  some  it  is  stronger,  and  more  en- 
lightened than  in  others — that  is  all  the  difference: 
It  exists  in  all  men,  to  speak  generally.  In  all  times 
it  has  existed.  It  has  been  found,  and  is  still  to  be 
found,  among  all  races  of  men.  It  is  an  instinct  of 
the  heart  and  of  the  reason  of  man.  As  the  Apostle 
reminds  us,  God  revealed  Himself  to  men's  under- 
standings by  His  works  and  His  dispensations.  Of 
the  heathen  especially  he  says  this.  The  fruitful 
seasons  God  sent  appealed  to  their  feelings  of  grati- 
tude and  of  dependence.  And  long  before  the  Apos- 
tle's time  it  had  been  noted  that  there  was  a  voice  in 
the  starry  firmament  which  had  gone  out  into  all 
lands,  and  had  been  heard  by  all  people ;  and  which 
they  had  understood  as  speaking  to  them  of  God. 
Into  whatever  heathen  land  you  may  go,  in  every 
city  you  will  find  costly  temples  raised  to  express  the 
devoutness  of  its  inhabitants.  So  was  it  of  old  time. 
And  now  well-nigh  all  that  meets  the  eye  of  bygone 
empires  and  states  of  civilization  are  the  remains  of 
their  magnificent  temples.  These  arc  standing  wit- 
nesses, and  witnesses  that  cannot  deceive,  of  the  de- 


THE   CENTURION   OF   C^SAREA.  201 

Youtness  of  all  races  of  men  in  all  times  and  places. 
We  know  the  mind  of  Cornelius's  countrymen,  and  we 
know  that  devoutness  was  a  very  large  element  in  the 
constitution  of  their  inner  nature. 

But  we  may  go  further  than  the  contemplation 
of  the  outward  manifestations  of  this  universal  senti- 
ment. True,  it  is  not  religion  as  we  understand  re- 
ligion, but  it  is  the  foundation  of  religion,  so  much  so 
that  religion  could  not  exist  w^ithout  it  any  more  than 
a  temple  could  be  raised  without  a  foundation,  or  a 
tree  grow  and  be  kept  alive  without  its  roots.  The 
sense  we  have  of  God,  and  of  the  relation  in  which 
we  stand  towards  Him,  is  the  foundation,  the  root  of 
religion.  Take  it  away  and  there  is  nothing  to  work 
upon,  nothing  to  rest  upon.  Or  we  may  look  at  it  in 
another  way,  as  the  seed,  the  germ  out  of  which, 
under  the  favoring  and  progressive  circumstances  God 
ordains,  religion,  even  that  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  is  in  fulness  of  time  developed ;  for  God  or- 
dains suitable  circumstances  for  the  growth  of  reli- 
gion just  as  He  does  for  the  growth  of  a  plant. 

You  will  not  then  understand  the  nature  of  man, 
or  the  history  of  religion,  or  the  character  of  this 
man,  and  both  of  the  former  throw  light  upon  the 
latter,  unless  you  understand  that  devoutness  is  an  at- 
tribute of  man,  and  belongs  to  the  heathen  as  well  as 
to  Christians.  Now  Cornelius  had  been  devout  as  a 
heathen :  indeed  it  was  this  disposition,  while  ho  was 


202  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

still  in  heathenism,  that  brought  him  to  entertain  the 
consideration  of  a  purer  and  higher  form  of  religion 
than  that  of  his  o'\Yn  country  in  which  he  had  been 
brought  up.  You  must  separate  in  him  the  idea  of 
devoutness  from  the  idea  of  the  approximations  he 
made  to  the  highest  and  purest  religion.  The  former 
existed  before  the  latter  in  his  mind,  just  as  it  had 
done  in  the  -world.  It  was  the  former  that  brought 
him  to  the  latter.  And  having  done  this  great  work 
for  him,  it  did  not  leave  him,  or  die  out  of  his  mind. 
On  the  contrary;  it  became  purified  and  exalted,  and 
a  still  more  vivifying  and  active  principle.  His  faith 
in  Christ  would  without  its  continuance  have  been  but 
ineffective  and  dead ;  while  with  it  that  faith  lived, 
and  moved,  and  had  being.  But  again  I  say  the  two 
things  are  quite  distinct.  Devoutness  is  one  of  the 
ingredients  of  man's  nature  that  is  common  to  all ;  it 
is  not  only  a  necessary  Christian  quality,  but  it  is  also 
a  good  heathen  quality.  The  first  Gentile  convert  to 
Christ  while  still  in  heathenism  had  been  a  devout 
man. 

And  now  we  pass  to  another  stage  in  the  formation 
of  his  religious  character.  "He  gave  much  alms  to 
the  people."  This  was  not  a  heathen,  assuredly  not 
a  Roman  practice.  Heathenism,  and  especially  Ro- 
man heathenism,  was  intensely  selfish.  It  was  the 
character  of  the  Government  and  of  the  people.  They 
respected  power  and  wealth ;  they  had  no  commisera- 


THE  CENTURION   OF  C^SAREA.  203 

tion  for  tlic  suffering  and  the  abject.  Woe  was  with 
them  the  lot  of  the  fallen.  Man  need  not  trouble 
himself  to  pity  those  whom  God  had  forsaken.  The 
Roman  never  founded  institutions  for  the  relief  of  the 
distressed  in  mind,  body,  or  estate.  With  reference 
to  this  particular  compare  the  past  with  the  present. 
Perhaps  in  no  city  of  the  world  of  the  same  size  as 
modern  Christian  Rome,  and  in  no  other  country  in 
the  world  with  a  population  equal  to  that  of  modern 
Christian  Italy,  are  there  so  many  who  live  by  alms. 
In  this  we  have  an  abuse  of  one  of  the  great  principles 
of  Christianity^;  but  in  heathen  Rome  it  was  most 
markedly  the  very  reverse  of  this.  In  that  hard- 
hearted city  the  beggar  was  little  known  in  the  time 
of  Cornelius.  The  word  so  seldom  occurs  in  the  lit- 
erature of  that  age  that  the  character  itself  must  have 
been  very  rare.  This  could  not  have  been  because 
there  were  none  in  a  state  of  destitution,  no  abjects 
(they  must  have  abounded  in  such  a  city),  but  because 
it  would  have  been  useless  for  the  abject  and  the  des- 
titute to  have  appealed  to  feelings  that  did  not  exist. 
How  then  came  this  Roman  captain  to  have  acquired 
the  habit  of  giving  much  alms  ? 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  answering  the  question, 
It  was  from  his  acquaintance  with  that  religion  which 
through  Moses,  David,  and  the  prophets  God  had 
given  to  the  people  among  whom  Cornelius  had  been 
for  some  time  residing.     "He  was  a  just  man  who 


204  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

feared  God,"  that  is  now,  the  God  of  Israel,  "and 
was  of  good  report  among  all  the  nation  of  the  Jews." 
It  is  the  Master  who  tells  us,  and  we  find  it  laid  down 
in  the  law  itself,  that  the  highest  regard  we  can  prac- 
tically feel  for  others,  is  just  the  very  principle  of  the 
law ;  for  it  is  in  the  Book  of  Leviticus  that  we  first 
meet  with  the  great  saying,  which  Jesus  recalls  in 
His  conversation  with  the  lawyer,  ''that  thou  should' 
est  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  Cornelius  was  now 
well  acquainted  with  this  law  and  its  principles.  He 
had  received  it  as  a  revelation  of  God,  and  from  God. 
He  had  formed  his  religion  from  it.  The  Jewish  law, 
in  a  way  in  which  no  heathen  law  over  had  done, 
charged  itself  with  the  care  of  the  orphan  and  the 
widow,  of  those  who  had  none  to  help  them,  of  the 
poor,  the  maimed,  the  destitute,  and  the  stranger. 
We  see  this  every  where  in  the  Law,  the  Psalms,  and 
the  Prophets.  Cornelius's  idea  therefore  of  the  duty 
of  man  towards  his  fellow-man,  regarded  as  a  matter 
of  religion,  was,  in  conformity  with  this  teaching,  to 
love  his  fellow-man,  and  gladly  to  do  for  those  who 
needed  his  assistance,  all  that  love  can  suggest.  This 
is  the  principle  which  fulfils  the  Law. 

That  this  was  the  principle  of  the  Jewish  Law  well- 
nigh  alone  proves  its  divine  origin.  You  must  recol- 
lect that  that  Law  was  promulgated  in  a  rude  and  vio- 
lent age,  and  intended  for  a  rude  and  unmanageable 
people,  insomuch  that  many  of  its  enactments  were 


THE  CENTURION   OF   C.ESAREA.  205 

adapted  to  such  a  state  of  things.  IIow  marvellous 
then  that  this  principle  of  love,  so  widely  at  variance 
with  the  tone  and  \yith  the  circumstances  of  the  times, 
and  so  immeasurably  in  advance  of  the  legislation  and 
of  the  feeling  of  the  most  polished  nations  of  the 
heathen  world,  should  have  been  made  its  governing 
idea.  And  now  this  principle  coming  to  Cornelius 
through  the  channel  of  the  Jewish  Law,  commended 
itself  to  him  as  the  rule  of  his  feelings  towards,  and 
of  his  dealings  with,  his  fellow-men.  The  very  word 
I  last  used  contained  an  idea  absolutely  new  to  him. 
He  had  not  been  brought  up  to  regard  men,  consid- 
ered as  men,  in  the  light  of  his  fellows.  He,  a 
Roman,  had  not  thought  the  inhabitants  of  subject 
nations,  or  that  part  of  the  population  that  was  in 
slavery,  or  the  poor  of  his  own  country,  as  in  any 
sense  his  fellows,  as  having  claims  upon  him,  and  as 
entitled  to  be  treated  by  him  with  consideration  and 
respect.  But  now  the  hard  selfish  arrogance  of  the 
Roman  was  abandoned,  and  his  feelings  and  practice 
had  risen  to  the  level  of  the  Jewish  Law.  To  be  mer- 
ciful, to  be  compassionate,  to  give,  he  felt  to  be  his 
duty  to  man  as  required  by  God.  "He  gave  much 
alms  to  the  poor. 

His  devoutness,  then,  and  his  alms-giving  mark  two 

stages  in  his  religious  progress :   his  devoutness  the 

stage  when  he  was  religious  as  a  good  heathen  might 

be;  his  alms-giving  when  he  had  superadded  to  the  de- 

18" 


206  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

voutness  of  a  good  heathen   the  religious  sense  of 
duty  to  others  which  the  Jewish  Law  prescribed. 

To  each  of  these  stages  is  appended  a  single  illus- 
tration which  we  must  notice  as  we  pass  along  in  the 
consideration  of  this  good  man's  character.  He  was 
a  devout  man,  "who  feared  God  with  all  his  house;" 
and  the  subsequent  parts  of  the  history  show  more 
than  this,  for  we  have  indications  of  others  beside  those 
of  his  own  house  having  been  influenced  by  his  devout- 
ness.  "The  devout  soldier,"  who  we  know  was 
among  those  who  waited  on  him  continually,  and 
whom  he  sent  with  his  two  servants  to  Joppa  to  sum- 
mon Peter,  may  have  been  intended  to  be  included 
among  "those  of  his  house."  But  to  meet  Peter  he 
invites  his  kinsfolk  and  acquaintance,  who  he  knows 
are  in  the  same  state  of  mind,  and  who,  we  cannot 
but  think,  must  have  been  brought  into  it  by  his  in- 
fluence. Real  devoutness,  since  we  all  of  us  have  al- 
ready some  amount  of  it  in  our  nature,  is  very  infec- 
tious. Not  only  does  it  pass  from  one  mind  to  other 
minds,  because  those  other  minds  are  predisposed  by 
what  they  have  of  their  own  to  admit  it,  but  it  con- 
sciously makes  the  effort  thus  to  spread  and  propagate 
itself.  And  this  is  an  indication  of  true  devoutness, 
that  this  effort  is  made,  and  that  it  is  made  success- 
fully. A  devout  man  will  generally  have,  as  Corne- 
lius had;  a  devout  household,  and  devout  kinsfolk  and 
acquaintance. 


THE   CENTURION   OF   CiESAREA.  207 

The  illustration  -which  is  appended  to  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  second  stage  of  his  religious  progress,  is 
that  he  prayed  to  God  ahvays.  This  is  inseparably 
connected  with  his  giving  much  alms.  For,  remark, 
it  is  not  merely  that  he  prayed — he  had  done  that  in 
his  state  of  devout  heathenism — but  that  he  prayed  to 
God ;  the  one  true  God,  by  whom  he  had  been  taught 
to  love  his  neighbor  as  himself.  His  desire  was  to 
commune  with  that  Being  from  whom  he  had  learnt 
this  most  blessed  principle,  and  so  to  drink  more 
largely  of  His  Spirit.  Each  implies  the  other.  If 
he  gave  much  alms,  he  would  pray  to  God  always; 
and  if  he  prayed  to  God  always,  he  would  give  much 
alms. 

But  to  proceed  to  the  third  and  last  stage  of  his 
character.  This  devout  man  who  had  brought  others 
to  fear  God, — this  man  who  gave  much  alms  and 
prayed  to  God  always, — had  still  one  step  to  take. 
But  it  may  be  said  what  more  could  he  have  needed? 
Is  there  not  enough  of  religion  in  what  has  been 
already  said  of  him  ?  Is  he  not  already  all  that  a  re- 
ligious man  can  desire  to  be?  Does  any  reasonable 
want  still  remain  unsatisfied  ?  Yes  :  the  greatest  need, 
the  most  pressing  want  of  all  that  religion  is  con- 
cerned with,  has  still  to  be  supplied.  What  he  wants 
is  precisely  that  which  all  religions,  more  or  less  dimly, 
or  more  or  less  distinctly,  aim  at.  He  wants  that 
which  all  the  altars,  all  the  temples,  and  all  the  ser- 


208  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

vices  throughout  the  world  were  designed  as  instru- 
ments for  attaining,  but  which  none,  not  even  the  sa- 
crifices and  services  of  the  Jewish  Temple,  could  com- 
pletely supply.  He  wants  something  that  will  meet 
and  remove  the  sense  of  sin,  of  unworthiness  before 
God,  of  alienation  from  Him,  even  of  contradiction  to 
Him.  He  wants  a  sense  of  pardon,  of  acceptance,  of 
reconciliation.  This  can  be  obtained  only  through 
what  Peter  has  to  communicate  to  him ;  the  Gospel  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  "through  whom 
alone  we  obtain  remission  of  our  sins;"  Christ,  the 
Saviour,  was  what  Peter  preached  to  him.  We  have 
the  narrative  of  Avhat  passed  on  the  occasion;  we 
know  what  Peter  said.  He  spoke  of  Christ,  and  of 
Christ  only,  as  the  Great  Deliverer  that  had  been  ex 
pected.  And  we  know  in  what  way  Cornelius  received 
what  Peter  said  of  Christ. 

Here  then  was  a  third  and  distinct  state  in  the 
religious  progress  of  this  first  Gentile  convert.  There 
was  now  superadded  to  the  two  conditions  of  mind  he 
had  previously  arrived  at,  that  at  which  they  had 
aimed,  and  that  for  v/hich  in  the  religious  progress  of 
the  human  race  they  had  been  the  preparation — a 
sense  of  forgiveness  and  acceptance,  accompanied 
with,  nay  almost  arising  out  of,  a  clear  perception  of 
the  goodness  and  loving-kindness  of  our  Father  in 
heaven;  a  far  clearer  perception  than  was  possible 
under  the  old  dispensation,  where  God  was  revealed 


THE   CENTURION   OF   C^ESAKEA.  209 

chiefly  as  the  Lawgiv^er  and  Judge  of  a  rude  and  stub- 
born people.  And  consequently  there  was  now  made 
a  fuller  and  more  direct  appeal  than  was  formerly  pos- 
sible to  the  good  and  loving  qualities  God  has  im- 
planted in  the  heart ;  and  the  faith  that  works  by 
love,  not  obedience  extorted  from  fear,  became  the 
principle  of  the  spiritual  life.  This  was  the  wisdom 
that  came  down  from  above.  It  brought  into  the  fore- 
ground a  gentler  and  more  heavenly  view  of  duty, 
one  element  of  which  was  that  sense  of  universal 
brotherhood  in  which  we  see  even  the  Apostle  Peter 
had  been  so  deficient.  This  was  what  Cornelius,  and 
after  him  the  civilized  world,  gained  by  rising  to  a 
belief  in  Christ  the  Light  and  the  Saviour  of  the 
world,  for  He  cannot  be  our  Saviour  any  more  than 
He  can  be  our  Light,  without  our  knowing  and  feeling 
it,  and  being  assured  of  it. 

And  what  I  have  been  endeavoring  to  set  before 
you  is,  my  good  friends,  not  merely  an  interesting 
picture  of  a  bygone  state  of  things.  What  passed  so 
many  hundred  years  ago  in  the  mind  and  heart  of 
this  Centurion  of  the  Italian  band,  is  a  picture  of 
what  passes  just  as  distinctly  in  our  own  minds  and 
hearts.  Every  one  of  us  who  is  in  the  habit  of 
coming  here  to  God's  House  is  more  or  less  devout. 
That  it  is  that  impels  us  to  come.  Some  of  us  give 
large  alms  to  the  poor.  Some  also  have  arrived  at 
that  full  assurance  of  faith,  which  gives  them  "hope, 
18^ 


210  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

and  peace,  and  joy  in  believing."  But  some  stop  at 
the  first  state.  It  seems  to  them  like  religion. 
They  fear  and  respect  God.  But,  my  friends,  you 
who  have  gone  no  further  than  this  state  are  not  yet 
Christians.  You  have  advanced  no  further  than  the 
good  heathen  had.  This  you  may  think  a  hard 
saying.  But  look  at  the  history  of  Cornelius's  re- 
ligion, and  you  will  understand  what  is  meant.  If  you 
are  pained  at  the  statement,  it  will  not  have  been  said 
unprofitably.  There  are  others  again,  and  these  are 
a  very  numerous  class,  who  go  no  further  than  the 
second  stage.  Here  they  feel  sure  is  practical  re- 
ligion. Here  is  palpable  proof  of  their  having  sub- 
mitted themselves  to  the  teaching  of  God.  They  are 
keeping  the  Law  of  Love  even  as  expounded  and  en- 
larged by  Jesus  Christ.  They  are  doing  good.  They 
are  diminishing  the  misery  that  is  around  them.  They 
visit  the  fatherless  and  the  widow  in  their  distress. 
They  feed  the  hungry ;  they  clothe  the  naked.  This 
is  practical  religion.  But,  my  friends,  this  is  only  the 
stage  which  Cornelius  had  reached  when  his  knowledge 
did  not  go  beyond  an  acquaintance  with  the  Law  of 
the  first  Dispensation.  If  this  be  enough,  then  was  it 
superfluous  that  Jesus  Christ  should  have  come,  and 
taught,  and  suffered.  You  must  go  up  higher.  There 
is  a  third,  the  last  and  crowning  stage.  You  must  go 
to  Christ.  You  must  learn  of  Him.  You  must  cast 
your  burden  upon  Him.     So  shall  you  find  rest  unto 


THE   CENTURION   OF  CiESAREA.  211 

your  soul.  That  will  be  a  state  in  which  your  love 
for  Ilim  who  so  loved  you  as  to  give  Himself  for  you, 
will  have  cast  out  fear.  You  will  be  conscious  of 
God's  love  for  you ;  and  you  will  no  longer  be  con- 
scious of  the  existence  of  any  bar  to  your  loving 
Ilim.  This  I  trust  is  the  state  of  some  among  us. 
We  cannot  say  who  are  Christ's  in  this  sense.  Nor 
can  we  say  who  among  us  are  resting  on  the  heathen, 
and  who  on  the  Judaical  form  of  religiousness.  Each 
must  try  and  examine  himself  as  in  the  sight  of  God 
who  knows  the  heart. 


Observations  on  the  foregoing  Sermon, 

I  wrote  the  foregoing  sermon  for  this  work  on  the 
Monday  after  I  preached  it.  I  had  previously  to 
preaching  it  made  only  a  mental  study  of  what  I  was 
to  say.  I  have  put  it  on  paper  for  the  purpose  of 
showing,  if  possible,  how  analysis,  and  its  opposite, 
comprehensiveness  of  view,  and  how,  too,  historical 
matter,  may  be  used  in  order  to  give  interest  and 
distinctiveness  to  a  familiar  subject ;  and  this  to  such 
a  degree  as  to  enable  the  preacher  to  bring  home  his 
discourse  in  an  intelligible  and  forcible  manner  to  the 
understandings  and  consciences  of  the  congregation. 
By  analysis;  I  here  mean  the  distinction  drawn  be- 


212  EXTExMPORARY    PREACHING. 

tween  the  three  states  of  the  religious  heathen,  the 
religious  Jew,  and  the  Christian ;  by  comprehensiveness 
of  view,  the  reference  made  to  the  manner  in  which 
the  religious  sentiment  shows  itself  in  all  ages  and 
nations ;  by  historical  matter,  the  reference  made  to 
the  Jewish  law  and  to  Roman  history. 

I  have  also  another  motive  for  giving  it  just  as  I 
preached  it.  I  had  intended  to  say  something  about 
the  proof  my  subject  gives  us,  fortified  by  that  of  the 
other  Centurion,  whose  faith  was  greater  than  that 
which  Jesus  had  found  in  any  in  Israel,  that  even  the 
profession  of  a  Roman  soldier  in  the  tributary  province 
of  Judea,  those  whom  John  advised  to  be  content  with 
their  pay,  and  not  to  accuse  any  falsely,  might  be 
sanctified  by  religion  unto  a  discipline  for  the  practice 
of  duty  both  to  God  and  man.  This  was  what  I  had 
intended.  But  being  struck  by  the  indications  which 
the  Scriptures  read  in  the  Service  supplied  of  the 
difi'erence  in  feeling  between  the  Apostles  Peter  and 
Paul  on  the  very  subject  I  was  about  to  speak  upon, 
the  admission  of  the  Gentiles  to  the  Church,  I  thought 
it  better  not  to  lose  the  opportunity  presented  for 
pointing  out  this  difterence.  It  was  the  10th  of  De- 
cember, and  the  second  Sunday  in  Advent ;  and  the 
difi'erence  in  feeling  between  St.  Peter  in  the  second 
lesson,  the  10th  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  St. 
Paul  in  the  Epistle,  from  the  15th  of  his  Epistle  to 
the  Romans,  was  most  obvious.     I  thought  it  better 


THE   CENTURION   OF   CJESAREA.  215 

to  drop  something  I  had  intended  to  say,  and  instead 
to  call  the  attention  to  this  point,  not  merely  because 
it  was  closely  connected  with  the  fact  I  was  about  to 
speak  upon,  but  because  at  the  same  time  it  presented 
an  excellent  opportunity  for  saying  a  few  words  on  a 
subject  which  throws  some  light  upon  the  nature  of 
Inspiration;  and  which  besides  gives  a  more  life-like 
interest  to  what  we  read  in  God's  Word. 

Now  it  is  plain  that  I  could  have  made  no  use  of 
this  opportunity,  which  'rt'as  of  much  value  both  exc- 
getically,  and  because  it  connected  the  sermon  very 
closely  with  the  foregoing  parts  of  the  Service,  if  I  had 
been  a  reader  of  written  sermons. 

But  as  my  object  is  to  give  my  younger  brethren 
hints  for  the  proper  composition  of  sermons,  I  will 
further  remark  that  my  having  done  this  injured  the 
proper  effect  of  the  sermon,  because  it  introduced 
what  was  in  reality  irrelevant  matter ;  that  is,  matter 
which  was  only  connected  with  my  subject,  and  not 
necessary  for  its  elucidation ;  and  so  far  it  was  de- 
structive of  that  oneness  of  purpose  which  ought  to 
pervade  all  that  is  said  in  a  sermon.  The  advantage 
however  of  saying  it  outweighed  this  disadvantage, 
and  so  I  introduced  it.  And  remark  that  it  was  out 
of  place  not  only  because  it  was  unnecessary  for  the 
elucidation  of  the  subject,  but  also  because,  b^ing  in 
itself  a  point  of  much  interest,  it  impressed  itself  too 


214  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

much  on  the  mind  at  the  expense  of  the  real  subject 
of  the  discourse. 

With  respect  to  the  references  to  history  which 
this  sermon  contains,  I  would  observe  that  nothing  of 
that  kind  is  of  any  value  in  what  is  addressed  to  un- 
educated persons.  As  they  cannot  understand  such 
matters,  they  are  only  confused  and  wearied  by  the 
mention  of  them. 

In  writing  this  sermon  the  day  after  I  had  preached 
it,  I  was  struck  with  the  difficulty,  I  almost  found  it 
the  impossibility,  of  maintaining  that  continuity  of 
thought  which  comes  spontaneously  in  speaking. 
The  length  of  time  required  to  write  a  sentence,  and 
the  attention  requisite  for  the  work  of  the  pen,  are 
constantly  breaking  the  direct  stream  of  thought,  and 
diverting  it  into  side  channels.  This  is  worthy  of 
being  noticed  as  a  disadvantage  of  writing  in  com- 
parison with  speaking.  One's  style  dlso  in  speaking 
is  more  homogeneous. 

In  the  foregoing  sermon  it  was  necessary  to  point 
out  that  the  germ  of  the  religious  character  of  the 
Centurion  was  his  devoutness;  but  the  word  is  re- 
peated too  often,  and  too  much  is  made  of  the  fact. 
I  leave  this  uncorrected,  that  it  may  illustrate  a 
fault. 


SERMON  Y. 


THE  CEXTUmON  OF  CAPERXAUM. 


Matthew  viii.  10.  13. 


•'When  Jesus  heard  it,  He  marvelled,  and  said  to  them  that 
followed,  Verily,  I  have  not  found  so  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel. 
And  Jesus  said  unto  the  Centurion,  Go  thy  way;  and  as  thou  hast 
believed,  so  be  it  done  unto  thee." 

There  are  four  Centurions  of  whom  in  the  Gospels 
and  Acts  of  the  Apostles  very  honorable  mention  is 
made.  First  comes  this  Centurion  of  Capernaum, 
■whose  faith  was  greater  than  that  of  any  in  Israel. 
He  is  followed  by  the  Centurion  who,  being  a  spec- 
tator of  the  Crucifixion,  declared  his  belief  that  He 
who  had  just  expired  on  the  Cross  was  truly  the  Son 
of  God;  a  conviction  which  certainly  at  that  moment 
does  not  appear  to  have  existed  in  the  mind  of  any 
one  of  the  disciples.  The  next  was  the  Centurion 
who  was  the  first  of  all  the  Gentile  world  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  Church  of  Christ.  Again,  it  was  a 
Centurioii  who  saved  the  Apostle  Paul  from  being 
thrown  out  the  ship  into  the  sea  in  the  storm  off  Mel- 

215 


21G  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

ita;  an  act,  the  eflfect  of  Avliicli  will  for  ever  be  felt  in 
the  Church  to  the  extent  in  -vvhicli  it  contributed  to 
strengthen  the  Pauline  element  in  the  setting  forth  of 
the  Gospel. 

What  is  told  us  of  these  Centurions  reminds  us,  by 
the  way,  how  illiberal  and  unjust  it  is  to  condemn  a 
man  on  account  of  the  profession  to  which  he  belongs. 
There  are  men,  in  these  days  even,  who  speak  dispar- 
agingly of  those  who  belong  to  the  profession  of, 
arms.  With  how  much  more  reason  might  this  have 
been  done  of  the  officers  of  the  Roman  army,  which 
was  very  notorious,  particularly  in  subject  countries 
such  as  Juda\a  then  was,  for  rapacity,  arrogance,  and 
cruelty ;  and  yet  here  arc  four  officers  of  that  army 
conspicuous  for  piety,  for  openness  to  conviction,  and 
for  a  proper  sense  of  duty  and  humanity,  at  a  time 
when  well-nigh  every  one  around  them  was  over- 
powered by  superstitious  terrors,  or  had  abandoned 
himself  to  disbelief  of  all  relis2;ion.  The  same  re- 
mark  must  be  made  of  class  prejudices.  The  rich 
think  disparagingly  of,  and  distrust  the  poor;  and  just 
in  the  same  way  do  the  poor  regard  the  rich.  This  is 
narrow-minded  and  sinful.  The  religiously  wise,  and 
the  w^orldly  wise  too,  will  estimate  a  man  not  by  con- 
sidering the  demerits  of  others,  but  by  endeavoring  to 
ascertain  what  is  the  character,  but  more  particularly 
what  arc  the  merits  of  the  man  himself.  It  is  a  mis- 
take to  suppose  that  it  shows  like  wide  experience  to 


Tlir:    CENTURION    OF    CAPERNAUM.  217 

condemn  whole  professions  and  classes.  Wide  expe- 
rience that  has  been  profited  by  teaches  that  there  arc 
no  two  persons  alike;  and  that  even  in  those  whoso 
faults  are  very  [)rominent  there  is  still  good  to  be 
found  by  all  who  have  the  eyes  to  see  it. 

But  to  come  to  our  Centurion.  lie  had  been 
brought  up  in  all  the  abominations  and  wickednesses 
of  heathenism;  but  he  has  now  built  a  synagogue  for 
the  promotion  of  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God. 
From  Avhat  darkness  had  he  passed  into  what  marvel- 
lous light!  We  can  hardly  imagine  the  conflicts  that 
must  have  taken  place  in  his  thoughts  and  feelings, 
while  he  was  breaking  away  from  the  immemorial  re- 
ligion of  his  country,  under  which  it  had  grown  from 
a  small  city  into  the  mistress  of  the  world;  and  while 
he  was  being  brought  to  know  God  through  the  sacred 
books  of  one  of  the  most  despised  and  hated  of  all 
the  subject  nations  of  the  empire.  But  just  as  the 
wise  man  will  recognize  moral  worth  whatever  be  tho 
calling  or  class  of  its  possessor,  so  also  will  he  be  dis- 
posed to  recognize  truth  whatever  may  be  the  means 
through  which  it  may  be  presented  to  him  ;  and  he 
will  hold  his  mind  in  readiness  to  abandon  falsehood, 
however  strongly  it  may  be  able  to  commend  itself  to 
his  feelings,  his  interests,  or  his  habits  of  thought. 
The  struggle  may  involve  the  very  tearing  out  of  his 
hcart-stringSj  but  in  proportion  to  the  nobility  of  his 


19 


218  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

nature  will  be  the  singleness  of  his  desire  that  the 
truth  only  should  triumph  within  him. 

But  the  struggle  was  now  over;  and  we  have  to 
see  in  what  it  had  issued.  First  look  at  his  liberality. 
To  those  among  whom  he  was  then  residing  he  had 
given  a  synagogue.  This,  recent  investigations  show, 
was  a  costly  act.  There  are  several  motives  which 
may  prompt  us  to  give;  I  need  only  notice  two 
here.  A  man  may  regard  giving  as  a  substitute  for 
religion ;  or  genuine  religion  may  impel  him  to  give. 
It  is  often  said  depreciatingly.  Giving  is  not  religion. 
The  reply  is,  No ;  but  there  can  be  no  religion  without 
it.  The  religion  of  Christ  would  have  men  ready  to 
give,  wherever  an  occasion  presents  itself,  their 
money,  their  time,  their  thought,  even  their  own 
selves.  Take  the  mere  giving  of  money;  he  that  is 
of  the  spirit  of  Christ  will  always  find  happiness  in 
giving,  because  the  promotion  of  a  good  object  will  be 
dearer  to  him  than  his  money.  How  many  are  there 
in  these  days  amongst  ourselves  who  have  exactly  fol- 
lowed in  the  steps  of  this  good  man's  liberality.  They 
have  assisted  in  restoring  or  building  some  house  of 
God,  or  have  carried  through  the  wdiole  work  at  their 
own  sole  cost.  The  thing  done  gave  them  greater 
pleasure  than  the  retention  of  what  it  cost  would  have 
given  them. 

And  now  notice  this  Centurion's  piety.  It  showed 
itself  in  every  way  in  which  it  could  have  been  possi- 


THE  CENTURION  OF  CAPERNAUM.       219 

blc  for  lilm  to  make  it  operative  on  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  others ;  that  is,  in  his  life  and  conversation, 
in  all  that  he  said  and  did.  But  here  I  confine  my 
observations  to  the  one  particular  just  mentioned:  he 
had  built  a  synagogue  for  the  Jews  of  Capernaum. 
Piety,  if  genuine,  must  endeavor  to  propagate  itself 
as  diffusively  as  possible.  How  this  was  to  be  done 
by  himself  must  have  been  the  question  which  above 
all  others  occupied  his  mind.  Of  course  it  is  to  be 
propagated  most  widely  through  the  instrumentality 
of  letters.  The  man  for  instance  who  writes  a  book 
such  as  that  of  Thomas  u  Kempis,  On  the  Imitation 
of  Christ;  or  that  of  Jeremy  Taylor  on  Holy  Living 
and  Dying,  kindles  and  feeds  the  flame  of  piety  in  a 
manner  which  can  be  effected  by  no  other  means. 
He  works  without  being  subject  to  the  restrictions  of 
time  or  place.  This  is  the  mighty  prerogative  of  the 
highest  form  of  intellectual  work.  It  is  unapproach- 
able by  any  other  means.  It  was  not  given  to  this 
Roman  Centurion,  it  is  not  given  to  one  of  a  million, 
perhaps  not  to  one  in  a  whole  generation  of  the  hu- 
man race  to  work  in  this  way.  But  he  did  what  was 
in  his  power,  and  what,  though  at  a  long  interval, 
came  next  in  effectiveness ;  he  built  a  house  of  God, 
a  place  where  the  Word  of  God  might  week  after 
week,  year  after  year,  and  generation  after  generation 
be  set  forth  by  reading,  by  exposition,  by  exhortation. 
He  could  establish  a.  centre  where  religious  thought 


220  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

and  feeling  might  be  cultivated  for  that  neighborhood 
■while  he  was  there,  and  after  he  was  gone:  and  that 
was  what  he  did,  and  what  he  meant  to  do  when  he 
built  the  people  of  Capernaum  a  synagogue. 

Observe  next  the  kindliness  and  considerateness  of 
his  character.  It  was  this  that  brought  him  before 
Jesus,  and  gave  him  a  place  in  the  records  of  the  Gospel 
history.  lie  is  very  solicitous  for  the  recovery  or 
the  relief  of  a  poor  grievously  palsied  slave.  In  what 
strong  contrast  does  this  stand  with  the  feelings  that 
were  usual  among  his  countrymen  on  such  subjects ! 
About  their  aged  or  worn-out  slaves  they  were  notori- 
ously careless  and  hard-hearted.  They  called  them 
and  treated  them  as  cattle.  But  this  man  begs 
the  chief  people  of  the  city  to  go  to  Jesus  and 
beseech  Him  to  restore  to  health  the  poor  creature. 
His  feelings  are  an  anticipation  of  Christian  charity. 

Another  particular  which  the  history  brings  out  is 
his  humility.  He  deems  himself  unworthy  either  of 
going  to  Jesus,  or  of  having  Jesus  come  to  him. 
Here  again  we  shall  fall  short  of  a  proper  view  of  the 
character  and  merits  of  the  man  if  we  content  our- 
selves with  the  thought  that  he  possessed  those  feel- 
ings which  we  understand  by  the  word  humility.  As 
in  the  former  particular,  we  must  contrast  what  he 
had  become  with  the  ideas  in  which  he  had  been 
brought  up.  His  arrogant  countrymen  had  no  con- 
ception of  this  grace.     They  had  no  word  in  their 


THE  CENTURION  OF  CAPERNAUM.       221 

language  for  it,  regarded  as  an  adornment  and  excel- 
lence of  character.  With  them  it  was  a  vice  of  the 
mind  and  heart ;  something  mean  and  contemptible. 
The  fact  is,  that  it  can  only  exist  in  those  who  have 
some  knowledge  of  God,  and  of  themselves,  and  of 
what  God  requires  of  them.  What  now  so  much  be- 
comes him  is  just  what  he  would  formerly  have 
shrunk  from  as  un-Roman  and  despicable. 

And  consider  too  how  what  in  him,  because  he  had 
been  brought  up  in  heathenism,  and  was  a  Roman 
soldier,  had  been  positive  vices  were  now  changed  into 
negative  excellences.  I  pass  by  the  probability  that 
he  had  been  a  man  who  would  have  borne  malice,  and 
would  have  deceived,  but  that  it  was  impossible  now 
that  he  could  do  either.  There  are  other  points  on 
which  we  may  speak  with  more  certainty.  V/hat  we 
call  debauchery  and  profligacy  were  of  the  very  rou- 
tine of  heathen  life.  We  know  how  frequently  the 
Apostle  Paul  refers  to  this  source  of  the  corruption 
of  heathenism.  But  the  life  of  this  good  man  could 
not  any  longer  have  been  tainted  with  this  kind  of 
impurity.  Again,  we  recollect  what  the  Baptist's 
advice  was  to  the  soldiers  who  came  to  ask  him  what 
they  should  do.  "  They  were  not  to  accuse  any 
falsely,  and  they  were  to  be  content  with  their  wages." 
This  implies  how  much  they  had  it  in  their  power  to 
oppress  the  subject  population,  and  how  frequently 


19* 


222  EXTEMPOEAEY   PREACHING. 

they  availed  themselves  of  their  opportunities  of  this 
kind.     But  this  man  did  not  extort  and  oppress. 

Great  then  were  his  negative  merits  as  well  as  his 
positive  virtues.  We  naturally  ask  if  it  is  possible  to 
trace  them  up  to  any  adequate  cause  ?  Yes,  the  cause 
was  what  Christ  particularizes  and  speaks  so  highly 
of:  He  had  not  found  so  great  faith ;  no,  not  in  Israel. 
It  is  so  among  ourselves.  A  man's  character, — and 
if  his  character,  then  of  course  his  conduct, — is  the 
result  of  what  he  believes.  It  is  not  only,  as  it  was 
in  his  case,  and  as  it  will  be  in  the  case  of  every  one 
of  us,  ^'as  thou  hast  believed,  so  be  it  done  unto 
thee,"  but  also,  as  thou  hast  believed,  so  wilt  thou 
do. 

This  faith  is  needed  by  all,  even  the  most  learned; 
and  is  possible  to  all,  even  the  most  unlearned. 
Those  most  learned  need  it  because  it  does  not  con- 
sist in  learning,  but  in  a  sense  of  our  relation  to  (rod. 
And  because  it  does  not  consist  in  learning,  but  in 
what  God  has  placed  within  the  reach  of  every  one 
He  has  made  accountable  for  his  conduct,  it  is  attain- 
able by  the  unlearned. 

Christ's  comparison  of  the  faith  of  the  Centurion 
with  that  of  the  chosen  and  highly-favored  people, 
and  the  way  in  which  He  marked  his  approval  by 
granting  what  the  man  asked  for,  convey  to  us  the 
lesson  that  is  it  not  our  gifts  and  opportunities  that 
will  ultimately  be  of  advantage  to  us;   our  having 


THE  CENTURION  OF  CAPERNAUM.       223 

possessed  tliem  may  even  increase  our  condemnation ; 
■what  will  benefit  and  save  us  is  the  use  we  shall  have 
made  of  them.  On  this  subject  two  questions  must 
be  asked.  First,  What  is  the  talent  the  Lord  of  all 
has  entrusted  to  me?  and  then,  Am  I  using  it  so  as 
to  promote  His  glory,  to  benefit  others,  and  to  im- 
prove myself? 

I  have  one  more  thought  to  set  before  you.  Com- 
pare this  Centurion  in  his  life,  and  in  the  end  of  his 
life,  with  the  other  Centurions  at  that  time  in  the 
Roman  army.  We  can  imagine  what  they  were. 
The  great  majority,  of  course,  were  as  the  great 
majority  always  have  been.  They  gave  themselves 
little  trouble  about  themselves.  As  they  had  been 
brought  up,  so  they  lived,  and  so  they  died.  Some, 
however,  made  use  of  their  opportunities  to  enrich 
themselves  dishonestly  and  cruelly,  at  the  cost  of  the 
provincials.  Some  by  attention  to  their  professional 
duties  rose  to  high  military  appointments.  Some  may 
have  returned  to  Rome,  and  by  endeavoring  to  serve 
the  state  at  home  became  great  in  civil  capacities. 
This  man  loved  those  among  whom  he  resided,  and 
was  loved  by  them  in  return.  He  was  liberal.  He 
was  intelligently  religious.  He  was  considerate  and 
kind  to  his  poor  slave.  He  thought  humbly  of  him- 
self. He  had  faith  in  God.  He  believed  in  Jesus 
Christ.  I  do  not  say  that  the  lines  which  were 
adopted  by  his  brother- Centurions  were  without  any 


224  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

reward  in  this  world ;  but  I  affirm  that  the  happiness 
conferred  on  him  by  the  line  he  adopted  was  well 
worth  having.  There  is  One  who  has  told  us  that  it 
will  be  rewarded  in  this  world  an  hundredfold,  and 
will  lead  to  life  everlasting  in  the  world  to  come. 
Each  must  consider,  and  choose  for  himself,  what 
he  thinks  best.  May  God  help  us  in  making  our 
choice. 


Observations  on  the  foregoing  Sermon, 

I  began  this  sermon  with  the  mention  of  the  four 
Centurions,  because  what  we  have  to  say  of  them  is 
of  so  much  interest  that  it  must  at  once  engage  the 
attention  of  the  hearers. 

This  mention  of  them  gives  an  opportunity,  which 
is  made  use  of  in  the  second  paragraph,  for  awaken- 
ing in  the  minds  of  the  congregation  a  sense  of  the 
injustice  of  the  common  fault  of  condemning  whole 
classes  and  professions,  a  fault  that  is  as  unchristian 
as  it  is  common.  This  practice  pretends  to  be  the 
result  of  experience,  whereas  experience  of  mankind, 
in  those  who  are  able  to  understand  its  lessons,  is  just 
what  will  most  effectually  save  us  from  it.  In  the 
Sacred  History  we  have  good  Pharisees  and  good 
Publicans,  as  well  as  good  Roman  soldiers.  Jesus 
came  from  Nazareth.    A  good  opportunity  for  making 


THE  CENTURION  OF  CAPERNAUM.       225 

people  feel  the  foolishness  and  ■wickedness  of  this 
practice  ought  not  to  be  lost,  although  it  is  not  a  mat- 
ter that  belongs  to  a  sermon  on  the  character  of  this 
Centurion.  But  it  springs  naturally  from  the  joint 
mention  of  the  four  Centurions,  which  was  the  point 
from  which  I  started. 

The  graces  which  are  manifested  in  this  T^enturion's 
character  ought  not  merely  to  be  catalogued.  To 
bring  them  out  distinctively,  and  to  unite  them  into  a 
portrait  of  the  man,  must  be  the  aim  of  the  sermon 
of  which  he  is  the  subject.  Each  should  be  so  pre- 
sented as  not  only  to  make  its  nature  apparent,  but 
also  to  awaken  interest,  and  to  engender  in  the  hearer 
the  feeling  that  it  is  worth  having  and  seeking.  The 
more  connectedly  they  are  all  presented,  the  more 
distinctness  and  life  will  it  give  to  the  Centurion's 
character. 

The  comparison  of  the  works  of  Thomas  k  Kempis 
and  Jeremy  Tayloi*  with  the  building  of  a  synagogue 
would  revive  flagging  attention ;  and  would  induce 
the  congregation  to  make  an  estimate,  and,  too,  a 
deservedly  high  one,  of  the  Centurion's  gift  to  the 
people  of  Capernaum,  as  a  means  for  promoting  piety. 
Without  some  stimulus  or  assistance  of  this  kind  the 
minds  of  the  hearers  would  not  be  disposed  to  make 
any  estimate  of  its  value  at  all. 

What  the  Centurion  had  escaped  in  abandoning 
heathenism,  and  what   he  had  gained  in  coming  to 


226  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

God  through  the  Law  and  through  Christ,  must  he  in- 
dicated, for  without  this  we  can  form  no  real  con- 
ception of  the  man ;  but  it  must  not  be  dwelt  on  at 
any  length,  because  the  character  of  the  man,  and  not 
the  difference  between  heathenism  and  the  knowledge 
of  God,  is  the  subject  of  the  sermon. 

The  exht)rtation  is  contained  indirectly  in  the  last 
paragraph.  This  is  a  case  where  an  indirect  way  of 
submitting  a  consideration  is  more  forcible  than  the 
direct  way  would  have  been.  The  direct  way  of 
putting  the  exhortation  would  have  been  to  say  :  "  You 
see  what  this  man  was.  You  see  what  he  gained. 
Become  like  him.  Secure  what  he  secured."  This 
would  have  been  very  common-place  and  feeble.  But 
by  giving  a  comparative  view  of  the  aims  and  princi- 
ples, of  the  modes  of  life  and  probable  success  in  life 
of  this  man  and  his  brother-Centurions,  the  hearers 
are  enabled  to  see  distinctly  what  is  the  object  of  the 
sermon,  without  being  directly  told;  and  they  will 
feel  that  their  approval  of  the  man's  character,  and 
their  desire  that  their  last  end  should  be  like  his,  are 
results  of  their  own  judgment. 


SERMON  VI. 


THE  SENSE  OF  SIN  AND  THE   SENSE  OF  DUTY   LEAD 
TO    FAITH. 


Luke  iii.  10-14. 


"And  the  people  asked  him,  saying,  What  shall  we  do  then? 
He  answereth  and  saith  unto  them,  He  that  hath  two  coats,  let 
him  impart  to  him  that  hath  none ;  and  he  that  hath  meat  let  him 
do  likewise.  Then  came  also  publicans  to  be  baptized,  and  said 
unto  him.  Master,  what  shall  we  do  ?  And  he  said  unto  them, 
Exact  no  more  than  that  which  is  appointed  you.  And  the  sol- 
diers likewise  demanded  of  him,  saying,  And  what  shall  we  do  ? 
And  he  said  unto  them.  Do  violence  to  no  man,  neither  accuse  any 
falsely  ;  and  be  content  with  your  wages," 

The  endeavor  to  do  our  duty  stands  in  two  rela- 
tions towards  faith.  In  that  which  is  most  frequently 
insisted  on  it  springs  from  faith  and  is  its  conse- 
quence. In  the  other  the  position  of  the  two  is  just 
reversed,  and  the  endeavor  to  do  our  duty  appears  as 
the  cause  of  faith.  This  is  the  relation  between  them 
supposed  in  the  Scripture  of  which  my  text  forms  a 
part,  and  which  I  now  propose  to  bring  before  you. 

227 


228  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

In  order  that  this  may  be  seen,  we  must  recall  the 
circumstances  under  which  the  questions  contained  in 
our  text  were  asked  and  answered.  Jesus  had  not 
yet  entered  on  His  ministry.  John,  His  appointed 
forerunner,  was  preparing  the  minds  of  the  people  for 
believing  on  Him.  The  burden  of  his  preaching  was, 
"Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord."  Mark  then  how 
he  endeavors  to  prepare  them  for  believing  on  Christ, 
when  Christ  should  Himself  come  forward  and  pro- 
claim His  divine  mission.  He  does  it  by  awakening 
within  them  the  sense  of  sin  and  the  sense  of  duty. 
His  preaching  is  described  in  one  word  when  we  are 
told  that  he  called  upon  them  "to  repent."  Cease  to 
do  evil,  learn  to  do  well ;  otherwise  you  will  be  incapa- 
ble of  believing  on  the  Great  and  Holy  One  who  is 
shortly  about  to  appear  before  you. 

What  followed  is  interesting  as  well  as  instructive. 
It  was  what  is  contained  in  our  text.  His  appeals  to 
the  sense  of  duty  and  the  sense  of  sin  had  come  home 
to  the  conscience  of  his  hearers.  It  was  not  the 
camel's-hair  garments  and  the  leathern  girdle  he  wore, 
nor  the  locusts  and  wild  honey  he  ate,  nor  his  dwell- 
ing in  the  wilderness  that  moved  them.  These  things 
were  in  the  eyes  of  John's  hearers  just  what  the 
clerical  dress  is  amongst  ourselves.  They  merely  in- 
dicated that  he  had  undertaken  the  office  of  a  teacher 
of  religion.  Eastern  ideas  have  always  required  in 
such   persons   some   such   austerities.     What   moved 


THE  SENSE  OP  SIN  AND  DUTY  LEADS  TO  FAITH.  229 

them  was  not  what  met  the  eye,  but  what  had  through 
their  ears  passed  to  their  hearts  and  consciences. 
God  has  made  every  man  more  or  less  capable  of  being 
wrought  up  to  a  desire  for  what  is  pure  land  holy,  and 
to  a  dislike  of  what  is  sinful.  And  John  having  ex- 
cited these  feelings  among  his  audience,  just  in  the 
manner  in  which  they  might  be  excited  amongst  our- 
selves, they  severally  inquire  of  him,  '^  What  they  shall 
do."  His  object  in  exciting  these  feelings,  and  in 
the  replies  he  made  to  their  questions,  was  to  bring 
them  to  Christ.  This  we  must  bear  in  mind  while  we 
review  the  scene. 

First  the  general  multitude  ask  him,  "  What  shall 
we  do?"  Mark,  he  could  not  say  as  Paul  said  to  the 
jailer  at  Philippi,  "Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  thou  shalt  be  saved;"  for  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
had  not  yet  manifested  Himself  to  the  world.  John 
was  at  that  very  moment  preparing  them  for  receiving 
Him.  With  this  then  in  view,  what  is  the  advice  he 
gives  them?  He  singles  out  the  one  commandment 
which  is  of  universal  application,  and  tells  them  to  be 
considerate  and  helpful  to  one  another.  And  to  make 
his  meaning  as  palpable  as  possible,  and  to  prevent  its 
being  lost  in  vague  generalities,  he  puts  his  reply  in 
the  form  of  two  instances :  "Let  him,"  he  says,  "who 
has  two  coats,  impart  to  him  who  has  none ;  and  let 
him  who  has  meat,  do  likewise."  To  the  mixed  mul- 
titude then  he  recommends,  as  a  preparation  for  belief 
20 


230  EXTEMPOKAEY    PHEACIIING. 

in  Christ,  the  most  general  of  all  duties.  And  as  this 
duty  does  not  rest  merely  on  the  fact  that  it  is  en- 
joined by  religion,  but  is  enjoined  by  religion  because 
a  foundation  for  it  had  all  along  been  laid  in  the  higher 
and  better  sentiments  of  our  nature,  his  recommenda- 
tion would  find  an  echo  in  the  hearts  of  all  those  his 
preaching  had  already  awakened  in  some  degree  to  a 
sense  of  sin  and  a  sense  of  duty.  If  he  could  induce 
them  to  act  on  these  feelings  by  putting  in  practice 
his  recommendation,  he  knew  that  he  would  thus  be 
leading  them  to  Christ. 

And  when  the  farmers  of  the  taxes  saw  that  he 
was  ready  to  give  advice  to  those  who  sought  it  they 
also  asked  him,  "And  what  shall  we  do?"  Again 
see,  bearing  in  mind  what  he  was  aiming  at,  how  he 
endeavors  to  attain  his  aim.  How  apposite,  too,  and 
how  full  of  good  sense,  is  his  advice.  There  is  nothing 
vague,  sentimental,  or  fanatical  about  it.  Now  he 
has  to  deal  with  a  particular  class  ;  and  he  bids  them 
guard  against  that  particular  sin,  for  the  commission 
of  which  their  particular  calling  presented  especial 
opportunities  and  temptations.  He  says,  '^  Exact  no 
more  than  that  which  is  appointed  you."  It  was  fre- 
quently in  their  power  to  practise  these  unjust  exac- 
tions. Things  of  this  kind  were  not  looked  into  very 
closely;  so  long  as  the  Government  received  the  rent 
at  which  they  had  let  out  the  taxes,  and  so  long  as 
there  were  no  public  disturbances,  all  was  right.     In 


THE  SENSE  OF  SIN  AND  DUTY  LEADS  TO  FAITH.  231 

collecting  these  taxes  there  were  seen  behind  the  farm- 
ers the  armed  force  and  the  tribunals  of  the  Romans. 
This  gave  these  men  great  facilities  for  exacting  more 
than  was  appointed.  The  victims  of  their  cruel  and 
dishonest  impositions  would  be  indisposed  and  afraid 
to  go  into  the  courts  of  their  foreign  oppressors, 
which  they  could  hardly  hope  would  be  courts  of  jus- 
tice to  them  in  such  cases. — We  know  that  it  was  the 
general  practice  of  the  farmers  of  the  taxes  in  Judaea 
to  sin  in  this  way.  Having  awakened  then  in  these 
persons  the  sense  of  sin  and  the  sense  of  duty,  he 
dexterously  turns  these  feelings  upon  the  point  where 
in  their  case  reform  was  most  needed,  and  with  respect 
to  which  their  requickening  consciences  would  be  most 
sensitive,  trusting  that,  if  he  could  induce  them  to 
undertake  what  he  recommended,  he  would  in  that 
way  bring  them  to  Christ. 

Let  us  go  on  with  this  instructive  scene.  When  he 
had  answered  the  publicans,  the  soldiers  came  forward 
with  a  similar  request.  Again  in  framing  his  reply 
he  had  in  view  the  same  object  as  before,  that  of 
bringing  the  inquirers  to  Christ ;  and  he  takes  the  same 
ground,  that  of  the  temptations  which  most  beset 
them.  "My  advice,"  he  says,  "  to  you  soldiers  is,  that 
you  do  violence  to  no  man,  neither  accuse  any 
falsely;  and  that  you  be  content  with  your  wages." 
This  would  not  be  suitable  advice  to  the  soldiers  of 
our  own  army ;  but  it  was  the  most  appropriate  that 


232  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

could  have  been  given  to  the  soldiers  who  were  then 
standing  before  John,  and  whose  consciences  had  just 
been  touched  by  his  exhortations.  They  were  pro- 
bably heathen  soldiers  in  a  conquered  country,  and  so 
were  not  likely  to  be  very  strictly  amenable  to  law. 
It  would  frequently  happen  that  they  would  plunder, 
and  practise  various  kinds  of  oppression  towards  the 
subject  population,  which  they  hated  and  despised, 
especially  by  threats  of  false  accusations  of  hostility 
to  the  Government,  and  of  the  breach  of  various  reg- 
ulations that  had  been  imposed  on  them  by  their  con- 
querors. "You  have  become  conscious,"  he  says, 
"  of  having  committed  these  particulars  kinds  of 
wickedness.  Endeavor  from  this  moment  to  avoid 
them." 

Such  then  was  the  Baptist's  method  of  preparing 
in  these  people's  hearts  the  way  of  the  Lord.  It 
consisted  in  persuading  them  to  give  up  their  common 
besetting  sins,  and  to  undertake  their  common  every- 
day duties. 

And  now  to  bring  this  home  to  ourselves.  Pos- 
sibly there  may  be  some  here  present  who  have 
scarcely  any  more  distinct  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  than 
John's  hearers  had.  How  shall  I,  Christ's  Minister 
among  them,  endeavor  to  put  them  wpon  a  way  by 
which  they  may  attain  to  this  faith?  This,  as  a  Min- 
ister of  God's  Word,  must  be  my  great  aim,  my  par- 
amount   object.     Some     might    say,    "Recommend 


THE  SENSE  OF  SIN  AND  DUTY  LEADS  TO  FAITH.  233 

prayer."  But  I  know  that  men  cannot  pray  who 
have  not  faith.  Others  might  say,  "  Speak  of  the 
wrath  of  God  against  sin,  and  of  the  grace  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ."  But,  again,  what  is  needed  is 
to  bring  men  to  believe  in  these  things.  I  am  reduced 
then  to  that  which  the  Scripture  before  us  suggests — 
the  effort  to  awaken  men  to  a  sense  of  duty,  and  a  de- 
sire to  perform  it,  and  to  a  consciousness  of  their  be- 
setting sins,  such  as  may  give  rise  to  the  desire  to  es- 
cape from  them. 

You  have,  then,  some  belief  in  a  connection  between 
your  present  life  and  a  life  to  come.  To  some  extent 
you  believe  that  the  purpose  of  your  existence  is 
moral  and  spiritual,  and  not  merely  material.  You 
have  some  apprehension  of  your  having  a  Great  Un- 
seen Master,  whose  eye  is  ever  upon  you,  and  who  is 
requiring  of  you  certain  dispositions  and  a  certain 
mode  of  life.  You  do  not  feel  these  thoughts  now  for 
the  first  time  stirring  within  you;  you  know  that  you 
are  concerned  in  the  matters  to  which  they  refer. 
But  let  us  go  more  into  particulars.  You  are  a  pa- 
rent or  a  child,  a  husband  or  a  wife,  a  master  or  a 
servant,  a  neighbor,  or,  to  take  the  instances  of  the 
text,  one  of  the  multitude,  a  man  among  men,  or  a 
soldier,  or  a  public  functionary  of  some  kind  or  other. 
Consider  Avhat  belongs  to  and  what  grows  out  of  your 
position;  its  calls,  its  opportunities,  its  temptations. 
You  do  not  think  that  your  position  has   no  duties; 

20* 


234  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

you  do  not  think  that  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference  to 
your  conscience  how  those  duties  are  performed,  or 
"whether  they  are  performed  or  not.  Now  imagine 
yourself  endeavoring  earnestly  to  do  your  duty  as  a 
parent,  or  master,  or  servant,  or  merely  as  a  man 
among  men,  and  cannot  you  see  that  this  endeavor, 
as  the  herald  of  the  Saviour  saw,  will  lead  you  on  to 
faith  in  that  Saviour  ?  Without  Christian  faith  you 
feel  and  acknowledge  that  you  have  duties.  The  only 
logical  inference  is  that  you  should  endeavor  to  prac- 
tise those  duties.  That  attempt  will  probably  issue  in 
Christian  faith. 

See  why  it  is  so.  It  is  an  attempt  which,  as  soon 
as  a  man  begins  to  make  it,  he  finds  beset  with  diffi- 
culties. One  want,  which  the  hundredth,  perhaps,  as 
well  as  the  ninety  and  nine  will  immediately  feel,  will 
be  that  of  distinct  and  infallible  authority  for  the  kind 
of  life  he  is  entering  on  ;  and  he  will  feel  that  it  must 
be  some  authority  external  to  himself.  This  is  a  very 
material  point.  There  is  a  craving  for  certainty 
which  is  not  to  be  found  in  one's  self.  Whence  then 
is  it  to  be  gbtained?  The  more  a  man  looks  into  him- 
self, the  less  confidence  will  he  have  in  himself;  the 
more  distinctly  will  he  perceive  that  he  is  misled  by 
what  he  desires,  by  self-love,  by  prejudices,  by  his 
natural  biasses,  and  also  by  his  ignorance.  The  edu- 
cated classes  may  think  that  they  are  more  or  less 
raised  above  these  influences,  these  disturbing  causes, 


THE  SENSE  OF  SIN  AND  DUTY  LEADS  TO  FAITH.  235 

or,  rather,  each  may  think  so  of  himself;  but  docs  he 
think  so  of  his  friends  and  neighbors,  as  well  in- 
structed as  himself?  As  respects,  however,  these 
subjects,  who  are  we  to  consider  as  the  educated 
classes?  Even  in  those  parts  of  the  world  which  are 
intellectually  the  most  advanced,  they  form  a  very 
small  proportion  of  the  whole.  And  if  we  extend 
our  view  to  mankind  generally,  they  become  so  small 
a  proportion  that  they  need  hardly  be  taken  into  ac- 
count. What  we  want  all  the  while  is  something  by 
which  the  great  mass  of  mankind  may  be  guided. 
Take  any  one  from  the  passing  crowd :  this  is  what  he 
needs.  Look  at  the  human  race  :  this  is  what  it 
needs.  The  impulses  of  the  sense  of  duty,  whether 
awakened  from  without  or  by  a  conscious  effort,  re- 
quire sanction,  and  support,  and  guidance.  These 
must  be  external.  There  must  be  something  that 
speaks  as  it  were  with  the  Voice  of  law — something 
authoritative. 

Who  then  is  there  that  can  speak  to  us  with  this 
necessary  authority,  and  with  a  voice  that  will  be  to 
us  as  the  voice  of  law?  Not  the  Scribes  and  Phari- 
sees— they  who  sit  in  Moses'  seat;  not  you,  nor  I,  nor 
any  other  man.  What  any  man  may  say  on  these 
subjects  (subjects  which  do  not  admit  of  demonstra- 
tion) must  be  more  or  less  colored  by  the  peculiarities 
of  the  individual,  of  the  age  in  which  he  lives,  and  of 
the  people  to  whom  he  belongs.     Men  can  only  see 


236  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHING. 

these  tilings  with  imperfect  vision  through  distorting 
media.  The  conclusion  any  individual  may  come  toon 
these  subjects  is  only  what  he  thinks;  it  is  his  opinion, 
and  must  partake  more  or  less  of  the  nature  of  a  con- 
jecture or  a  guess.  All  the  while  what  is  wanted  is 
certainty;  for  what  is  wanted  is  a  rule  that  a  man 
may  live  and  die  by.  The  philosophies  of  the  ancients 
failed  among  other  reasons  from  this,  that  they  were 
not  possessed  of  the  requisite  authority.  One  was  ar- 
rayed against  another;  and  all  wore  the  aspect  of 
guesses;  whereas  what  was  wanted  was  certainty. 
Whence  then,  and  how,  shall  we  obtain  it?  In  this 
matter  little  or  nothing  can  be  done  without  it.  The 
history  of  the  human  race  shows  that  it  can  be  ob- 
tained only  from  one  source,  that  is,  from  Him  who 
alone  can  speak  with  authority,  to  Whom  alone  in 
this  matter  authority  and  certainty  belong,  God  Him- 
self, the  author  of  the  moral  law.  It  was  this  feeling 
that  brought  Christendom,  and  will  naturally  bring 
every  one  of  us  who  shall  have  become  desirous  of  dis- 
charging his  duty,  to  the  Word  of  God,  that  is,  to  the 
Incarnate  Word — the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whom  God 
sent  to  be  in  this  particular  the  Light  of  the  world,  to 
give  light  to  every  man  who  desires  light.  He  alone 
speaks  not  as  men  speak,  but  with  authority  and  cer- 
tainty. 

As  soon  as  this  want  is  felt,  we  see  that  recourse 
is  had  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  to  those  who  have 


THE  SENSE  OF  SIN  AND  DUTY  LEADS  TO  FAITH.  237 

made  the  Word  of  God  their  study.  This  is  an  ever- 
acting  motive  which  generation  after  generation  fills 
the  house  of  God ;  which  from  the  Apostles '  days  to 
our  own  has  brought  together  so  many  Christian  con- 
gregations— the  desire  to  be  told,  albeit  through  a 
human  channel,  what  God  would  have  them  to  do. 
Nothing  of  the  kind  would  ever  have  taken  place  if 
preachers  spoke  with  no  other  authority  than  their 
own. 

And  if  we  pass  from  the  sense  of  duty  to  that  with 
which  it  is  very  closely  connected,  the  sense  of  the  re- 
lation that  exists  between  man  and  the  author  of  the 
moral  law,  we  find  precisely  the  same  want  felt,  that 
of  distinct  and  certain  knowledge,  derived  from  an 
authoritative  source.  Many  put  themselves  forward 
as  teachers  in  these  times,  as  many  have  done  in  all 
times.  But  of  all  these  could  we  accept  one.  Revela- 
tion entirely  set  aside,  as  capable  of  being  the  instruc- 
tor of  his  brethren  on  this  subject?  Can  the  people 
of  this  country  be  each  to  himself  a  light  upon  this 
subject,  or  can  the  people  of  any  country?  It  is 
clear,  that  as  soon  as  the  religious  sentiment  is 
awakened  it  needs  guidance  and  enlightenment,  that  is, 
it  needs  a  revelation;  and  no  other  revelation  has  been 
given  but  that  through  Jesus  Christ.  This  sentiment, 
therefore,  just  as  the  sense  of  duty  does,  leads  to  faith 
in  Him.     If  it  does  not  lead  to  Him,  then  there  is  an 


238  EXTEMPORARY    PREACHmG. 

instinct  without  an  object,  or  without  the  means  of 
attaining  to  its  object. 

But  not  only  did  we  find  the  Baptist  setting  before 
his  hearers  what  thej  ought  to  do,  but  also  calling 
them  to  repentance.  That  is  to  say,  as  I  have  been 
putting  it  throughout  this  discourse,  not  only  en- 
deavoring to  awaken  within  them  the  sense  of  duty, 
but  also  the  sense  of  sin.  The  two  are  so  closely 
connected  that  they  may  almost  be  regarded  as  two 
aspects  of  the  same  feeling.  Regarding  them  how- 
ever for  this  occasion  separately,  let  us  see  how  the 
latter  also  would  lead  to  the  object  he  had  in  view. 
A  sense  of  our  having  done  wrong,  of  our  having 
wronged  our  Maker,  wronged  the  nature  He  gave  us 
akin  to  His  own,  fallen  short  of  the  opportunities  He 
has  presented  to  us,  and  wronged  our  fellow-men,  can 
have  but  one  issue,  and  that  is  the  desire  for  atone- 
ment. If  the  uneasiness  felt  does  not  lead  to  this,  it 
is  purposeless.  This  seeking  for  atonement  in  a  man 
who  has  become  conscious  of  having  done  wrong  is  as 
natural  as  the  effort  to  obtain  food  when  one  is  hun- 
gry. All  the  penances  and  mortifications  the  natural^ 
man  imposes  on  himself,  all  the  altars  that  have  been 
raised,  and  all  the  sacrifices  that  have  been  offered  on 
every  part  of  the  earth's  surface,  are  unanswerable 
witnesses  to  this  fact.  Man  has  felt  universally  the 
necessity  of  atonement.  Man  believes  in  God,  and  in 
a  day  of  account.     It  cannot  therefore  be,  he  feels 


TUE  SENSE  OF  SIN  AND  DUTY  LEADS  TO  FAITH.  239 

that  it  cannot  be,  a  matter  without  issue  that  he  has 
been  a  wrong-doer.  How  were  the  sins  of  that  mul- 
titude that  stood  before  John  to  be  atoned  for?  He 
knew  but  of  one  Avay,  the  deliverance  to  be  effected 
by  Him  to  whom  he  pointed  when  he  said,  ^'Behold 
the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world."  And  as  there  is  no  other  name  given  under 
heaven  whereby  this  may  be  effected,  the  sense  of  sin, 
accompanied,  as  it  must  be,  by  the  craving  for  atone- 
ment and  reconciliation,  must  lead  to  faith  in  Christ. 
Every  one,  then,  can  and  must  judge  for  himself 
whether  the  ground  I  have  been  taking  to-day  is 
strong  or  weak.  Each  is,  as  far  as  he  himself  is  con- 
cerned, the  only  possible  judge  of  the  matter.  I 
appeal  to  what  I  suppose  is  in  your  hearts  and  minds, 
to  what  you  must  know  about  yourselves.  But  I  have 
no  fear  that  you  will  attempt  to  refute  me  from  your 
own  experience,  for  I  have  been  speaking  of  the  com- 
mon principles  and  the  common  necessities  of  ev^ry 
man's  nature.  All  languages  show  that  men  have  in 
all  times,  and  in  all  places,  had  an  instinctive  sense 
of  duty.  It  matters  nothing  whether  it  results  from 
the  exercise  of  a  congenital  faculty,  or  from  necessary 
development,  as  the  flower  and  the  fruit  do  from  the 
seed.  Certain  actions  and  certain  dispositions,  vary- 
ing from  the  necessity  of  circumstances  within  certain 
limits,  but  still  always,  however,  varying,  presenting 
the  same  characteristics,  have  always  been  approved 


240  EXTEMPORAKY   PREACHING. 

of,  well  spoken  of  and  regarded  as  becoming.  To 
these  men  have  considered  themselves  as  under  obliga- 
tion. The  sense,  too,  of  man's  standing  in  certain  re- 
lations to  God  has  been  equally  universal.  The  same 
is  true  of  the  sense  of  sin.  Men  are  every  where  ac- 
quainted with  its  demerits,  and  have  a  more  or  less 
definite  desire  to  be  rid  of  what  they  anticipate  as  its 
consequences.  Upon  these  principles  of  our  common 
nature  I  take  my  stand.  If  you  are  conscious  within 
yourselves  of  these  feelings,  there  is  but  one  legitimate 
conclusion  to  which  you  can  come,  that  is,  thankful 
and  trustful  faith  in  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  and  Sa- 
viour Jesus  Christ.  It  alone  can  give  light  accom- 
panied with  authority  where  we  need  them.  It  alone 
can  supply  those  wants  which  conscience  forces  on  our 
attention.  Not  only  then  is  it  the  unspeakable  gift  of 
God,  and  emphatically  the  good  tidings,  but  it  is  the 
necessary  complement  of  our  nature  and  of  the  con- 
ditions of  our  earthly  existence.  It  is  no  by-thought 
or  after-thought  breaking  in  unexpectedly  in  the  mid- 
dle course  of  this  present  dispensation,  but  it  is  the 
completion  and  the  crowning  fact  of  the  one  great 
harmonious  plan.  Without  it  the  moral  and  spiritual 
creation  would  be  confusion,  darkness,  and  despair. 
With  it  we  obtain  all  that  our  spiritual  and  moral,  and 
much  that  our  intellectual  nature  requires — a  sense 
of  certainty,  a  sense  of  peace  and  reconciliation,  and 
a  sense  that  we  arc  progressing  towards  a  higher,  and 
as  we  are  allowed  to  hope,  even  a  perfect  state. 


THE  SENSE  OF  SIN  AND  DUTY  LEADS  TO  FAITH.  241 


Observations  on  the  foregoing  Sermon. 

We  insist  frequently  upon  the  statement  that  the 
virtues  are  all  of  them  fruits  of  faith.  It  therefore 
becomes  necessary  for  the  Minister  who  is  desirous  of 
fully  instructing  his  hearers  in  the  Word,  to  call  their 
attention  to  the  opposite  view  of  the  relation  in  which 
the  two  may  be  standing  to  each  other ;  the  relation 
in  which  that  which  is  usually  regarded  as  the  cause 
appears  as  the  effect,  and  the  effect  as  the  cause. 
And  this  will  have  the  advantage  of  showing  a  scrip- 
tural, and  I  believe  the  readiest  and  most  certain, 
because  the  natural  method  of  producing  faith  in 
men's  minds.  To  point  out  this  method,  and,  while 
pointing  it  out,  to  use  it  for  its  proper  purpose,  as  far 
as  that  can  be  done,  is  the  object  of  the  sermon. 

It  is  surprising  that  the  ideas  of  so  many  Christians 
as  to  what  the  religion  of  Christ  requires  of  them 
should  be  so  different  from  what  we  find  Christ  Him- 
self telling  us  in  His  announcements  of  His  kingdom 
and  Gospel.  He  makes  it  consist  in  right  conduct 
resulting  from  right  dispositions.  But  if  we  listen 
now  to  those  who  put  themselves  most  prominently 
before  us  as  teachers  of  religion,  and  religious  guides, 
we  shall  hear  most  of  them  affirming  above  all  things 

21 


242  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

the  necessity  of  some  detached  doctrine,  or  the  per- 
version of  some  doctrine,  or  some  only  partially  true 
opinion.  Such  a  text  then  as  the  one  that  has  been 
before  us  is  useful  as  bringing  us  back  to  a  scriptural, 
and  a  plain  and  intelligible  conception  of  Christianity. 
Here  is  the  forerunner  of  Christ,  -whose  work  it  was  to 
prepare  men  for  Christ,  telling  them  what  they  must 
do ;  and  what  he  tells  them  is  that  they  must  practise 
the  several  duties  of  their  respective  stations  and  cir- 
cumstances. 

There  are  some  who  in  reading  this  sermon  would 
remark  that  it  is  unmanly,  and  that  it  shows  a  dis- 
trust in  the  power  of  Christ,  not  to  speak  at  once  and 
in  the  first  instance  of  Christ.  It  may  not  be  so.  He 
who  on  finding  the  surface  of  the  ground  unfit  for  sup- 
porting the  structure  he  is  desirous  of  erecting,  goes 
down  deeper  for  a  foundation,  is  not  to  be  accounted 
an  unwise  builder.  At  all  events,  such  objectors  are 
at  issue  with  the  Baptist  in  his  method  of  bringing 
men  to  Christ. 

I  have  just  used,  not  undesignedly,  the  expression 
of  going  deeper  for  a  foundation,  because  in  these 
matters  there  is  something  anterior  to,  and  more  an- 
cient than  the  Gospel;  which  is  not  yet  two  thousand 
years  old;  something  more  universal,  for  the  Gospel 
has  not  yet  spread  over  the  world ;  something,  in  short, 
upon  which  the  Gospel  is  founded,  and  to  which  it  ap- 
peals— the  sense  of  sin  and  the  sense  of  duty,  and  the 


THE  SENSE  OF  SIN  AND  DUTY  LEADS  TO  FAITH.  243 

sense  of  our  standing  in  certain  relations  to  God. 
We  may  also  regard  these  sentiments  as  the  citadel. 
If  the  citadel  be  secured,  the  city  may  be  lost,  and 
again  recovered.  But  if  the  citadel  itself  be  lost, 
nothing  more  can  be  done.  That  which  it  was  de- 
signed to  protect  has  fallen  with  it,  and  all  is  lost. 


STUDIES  FOR  SERMONS. 


I  WILL  now  give  six  short  studies  for  sermons.  I 
take  tliem  from  a  selection  of  as  many  hundreds.  To 
make  them  intelligible  to  others,  I  am  obliged  to  ex- 
pand them  very  much  beyond  the  length  at  which  they 
were  set  down  originally,  when  intended  only  for  my 
own  eye.  I  find  studies  of  this  kind  of  great  use, 
because  they  enable  one  to  take  in  at  a  glance  all  the 
ground  that  is  to  be  passed  over  in  preaching,  and  to 
judge  in  a  few  seconds  of  the  quality  and  arrange- 
ment of  one's  materials. 

It  would  be  of  advantage  to  very  many  also  of  those 
who  read  written  discourses,  if  they  were  to  make 
short  abstracts  of  this  kind  of  every  sermon  they 
write.  It  would  oblige  them  to  ascertain  what  is  the 
real  meaning  of  every  paragraph;  and  to  see  what 
is  the  nature  of  its  connection  with  what  precedes  and 
with  what  follows  it.  It  would  help  them  very  much 
in  forming  a  correct  judgment ;  at  all  events  it  would 
necessitate  their  forming  some  kind  of  judgment  of 
the  sermon  they  were  about  to  preach,  both  as  a  whole, 

and  of  each  part  of  it. 
244 


STUDY  I. 


GOD  HAS  IMPOETAXT  WORK  FOR  THE  LEAST  AMONG  US. 


Deutebonomt  vii.  6,  7. 

"The  Lord  thy  God  hath  chosen  thee  to  be  a  special  people 
unto  Himself,  above  all  people  that  are  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Tho  Lord  did  not  set  His  love  upon  you,  nor  choose  you,  because 
ye  were  more  in  number  than  any  people ;  for  ye  were  the  fewest 
of  all  people." 

I. — 1.  The  gifts  God  bestows  upon  us,  and  the 
work  He  calls  us  to  do,  are  not  in  proportion  to  our 
seeming  importance  in  the  world.  Consider  the  his- 
tory before  us.  He  passes  over  the  Egyptians,  and 
chooses  their  wretched  bondmen. 

2.  This  may  be  further  illustrated  by  the  call  of 
Abraham. 

3.  This  is  in  accordance  with  what  God  does  in  the 
kingdoms  of  nature.  The  huge  elephant  is  of  very 
little  use  in  the  world,  while  the  smallest  animalcules 
have  built  up  large  districts  of  existing  continents, 
and  are  building  up  what  will  be  large  districts  of 

21*  245 


246  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

future  ones.  The  little  bee  gives  men  honey  and 
light.  Another  insignificant  insect  contributes  largely 
to  the  clothing  of  the  human  race.  And  so  it  is  in 
the  vegetable  kingdom.  The  humble  grass  we  tread 
on  unnoticed  has  a  more  important  place  in  the 
economy  of  nature  than  the  stateliest  trees  of  the 
forest. 

II. — 1.  Just  so,  God  has  great  work  for  little 
people  to  do.  Consider  what  the  world  owes  to  the 
people  described  in  the  text  as  ''the  fewest  of  all 
people."  Without  them  what  would  the  religion  of 
the  leading  races  of  mankind  now  be  ? 

(2.  It  is  instructive  to  observe,  by  the  way,  that 
though  they  did  not  comprehend  their  high  calling, 
still  God's  purpose  was  worked  out  through  them.) 

III. — 1.  The  moral  of  these  observations  is  for  each 
of  us,  that  he  cannot  be  so  small  but  that  God  has 
some  great  work  for  him  to  do. 

2.  The  humblest  in  circumstances  should  recollect, 
that  it  was  not  by  the  great,  the  powerful,  the  noble, 
that  the  Gospel  was  first  received  and  exhibited  to  the 
world.  The  same  glorious  part  is  open  to  the 
humblest  in  all  ages.     It  is  so  at  this  day. 

3.  God  has  something  for  the  poor  beggar  to  do, 
as  a  poor  beggar,  which  he  could  not  do  were  he  a 
prince. 

4.  He  who  came  in  the  form  of  a  servant,  not 
having  where   to   lay  His  head,  has  shown  by  His 


GOD   HAS  IMPORTANT   WORK  FOR   TUE   LEAST.    247 

example,  that  a  holy  spirit  will  under  the  lowliest  cir- 
cumstances make  its  possessor  a  blessing  to  his  fellow- 
men,  and  enable  him  to  live  to  the  glory  of  God. 

lY.  Nothing  can  so  lift  us  above  worldly  cares 
and  circumstances  as  the  knowledge  that,  whatever 
our  position  at  present,  still  that  we  have  a  part  to 
act  in  the  great  plan,  not  unimportant,  for  assigned 
us  by  God  Himself.  We,  even  if  we  be  the  lowliest 
of  all  may  do  the  work  and  live  the  life  of  God  as 
thoroughly,  may  be  as  much  His  instruments,  and 
represent  Him  as  truly  to  our  brethren,  as  the  most 
exalted  of  all. 


STUDY  II. 


SOME  LIMITATIONS  TO  SELF-WILL. 


Deuteronomy  xii.  8. 

"Ye  shall  not  do  after  all  the  things  that  we  do  here  this  day, 
every  man  whatsoever  is  right  in  his  own  eyes." 

I. — Self-will  is  a  natural  impulse  in  all.  It  is 
not  desirable,  nor  would  it  be  possible  that  it  should 
be  carried  out. 

II. — 1.  Moses,  in  giving  the  Law  which  was  to 
transform  a  multitude  into  a  nation,  announces  the 
limitation  it  would  set  to  their  self-will.  Without 
this  limitation  national  existence  would  be  impossible. 

2.  Look  at  the  summary  of  the  Law,  the  Decalogue, 
and  see  how  its  injunctions  and  prohibitions  check  and 
guide  us  at  every  step. 

3.  This  is  why  we  are  told  in  the  New  Testament 
to  be  subject  to  magistrates ;  and  that  they  are  or- 
dained of  God. 

4.  The  whole  framework  of  human  societies  con- 
sists of  so  many  checks  on  self-will.     The  same  may 

248 


SOME    LIMITATIONS   TO    SELF-WILL.  249 

be  said  of  our  daily  and  hourly  intercourse  with  each 
other. 

5.  Take  what  we  are  most  familiar  with,  our  own 
homes,  and  you  will  see  that  home  becomes  impossible 
if  self-will  is  to  be  the  rule  of  its  member's  conduct. 

III. — But  law  is  very  imperfect.  Religion,  which 
substitutes  the  love  of  others  for  the  love  of  self,  is 
the  only  complete  and  ever-acting  check.  It  trans- 
forms our  worst  fault  into  our  highest  grace. 

IV. — The  means  by  which  we  may  be  brought  to 
this  new  birth,  this  regenerate  state,  are — (1)  a  know- 
ledge of  God;  (2)  thoughtful  and  serious  habits  of 
mind;  (3)  experience  of  the  fact  that  self-will  is  not 
conducive  to  happiness ;  (4)  early  training ;  (5)  an  ac- 
quaintance with  the  character  and  with  the  work  of 
Christ ;  (6)  communion  with  God,  i.  e.,  prayer. 

Y. — The  result  will  be,  that  a  spirit — the  opposite 
of  self-will,  originally  external  to  ourselves,  and  no 
part  of  what  we  were  by  nature — God's  Spirit  will 
come  and  dwell  with  us,  and  make  us  one  with  God 
and  one  with  Christ. 


STUDY  III. 


WE  TEMPT  GOD    BY  OUR    DESIRES. 


Psalm  cvi.  14,  15. 

" They  tempted  God  in  the  desert.     And  He  gave  them  their 
desire;  and  sent  leanness  withal  into  their  souls." 

I. — 1.  Then  our  having  obtained  our  desires  is  no 
proof  either  that  it  was  right  to  have  entertained  such 
desires,  or  that  now  they  are  fulfilled  there  will  result 
to  us  from  them  any  kind  of  blessing. 

2.  The  text  is  a  comment  on  the  history  recorded 
in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Numbers.  While  God,  we 
are  told,  was  bringing  up  the  Israelites  from  the  bon- 
dage of  Egypt  to  the  land  He  had  promised  them,  He 
fed  them  in  the  desert  with  manna  from  heaven.  This 
was  to  teach  them  their  dependence  on  Him,  and  that 
they  might  trust  Him.  They  desire  meat  instead. 
This,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  would  have  been 
a  matter  of  indifi'erence.  Under  the  particular  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case  it  was  tempting  God,  It  was 
250 


WE   TEMPT   GOD    BY    OUR    DESIRES.  251 

calling  upon  Him  to  do  in  one  way  what  He  had  for 
sufficient  reasons  decided  would  best  be  done  in  a  dif- 
ferent way.  Their  desire,  however,  is.  complied  with  ; 
but  its  fulfilment  is  made  the  instrument  of  their  pun- 
ishment. 

II. — 1.  It  is  then  a  sin  to  tempt  God ;  and  we 
tempt  Him  when  we  would  do  in  one  way  what  He 
has  ordained  should  be  done  in  another  way.  Jesus 
Christ  would  have  tempted  God  if  He  had  thrown 
Himself  down  from  the  pinnacle  of  the  Temple,  be- 
cause reason  (which  God  has  given  us  for  this  among 
other  purposes)  teaches  that  those  who  act  in  this 
way,  God  does  not  protect. 

2.  God  has  ordained  that  man  shall  eat  bread  by 
the  sweat  of  his  brow.  Those  who  make  haste  to  get 
rich,  and  there  are  many  such  in  these  days,  tempt 
God. 

3.  God  has  ordained  that  parents  should  train  up 
their  children  by  encouraging  them  in  doing  right, 
and  by  restraining  them  when  they  do  wrong.  Those 
who  neglect  these  things  tempt  God. 

4.  God  has  ordained  that  we  should  hear  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Those  who  in  this  matter  are  in  their 
own  conceit  wiser  than  God,  are  tempting  God. 

III.— 1.  But  the  text  speaks  of  our  desires  as  the 
means  wherewith  we  may  tempt  God.  Our  desires 
may  be  in  themselves  all  that  is  most  excellent,  as  was 
the   desire  of  Judas  to  be  the  companion  of  Jesus. 


252  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

But  desires  the  most  excellent  may,  as  in  his  case,  be 
cherished  for  purposes  the  most  vile. 

2.  Or  our  desires  may  be  in  themselves  most 
wicked;  as  when  the  Israelites  wished  to  worship 
idols  or  to  be  told  smooth  false  things.  So  it  may  be 
with  us  when  we  desire  opportunities  for  lust,  revenge, 
deceit,  &c. 

3.  Or  they  may  be  indifferent,  as  when  we  desire 
wealth;  which  maybe  desired  and  used  either  for 
good  and  godly  purposes,  or  for  bad  and  godless 
ones. 

lY. — God,  by  the  reason,  the  conscience,  the  powers 
of  observation,  the  experience  of  life  He  has  given 
us,  and  by  the  instruction  and  the  Spirit  He  conveys 
to  us  through  His  Word,  enables  us  to  regulate  our 
desires  wisely.  But  at  the  same  time,  if  we  will  have 
it  so.  He  allows  us  opportunities  for  doing  wrong,  for 
wreaking  our  vengeance,  for  living  unchastely,  for  de- 
ceiving, for  self-indulgence,  and  for  godlessness.  How 
appalling  is  this  thought!  Let  each  then  consider 
vv'hat  is  the  nature  of  his  desires,  and  why  he  wishes 
for  such  or  such  things.  Let  us  look  into  our  hearts. 
Self-knowledge  is  the  most  difficult,  as  it  is  the  most 
useful  of  all  knowledge.  We  must  try  to  see  our- 
selves as  others  see  us,  or  rather  as  God  sees  us. 


STUDY  IV. 


WHAT  IS  TRUTH? 


John  xviii.  88. 
'  What  is  truth  ?" 


I. — 1.  Pilate  asked  this  question  jeeringlj,  and 
did  not  wait  for  an  answer.  He  was  an  educated 
Roman,  and  a  man  of  the  world.  He  must  have  had 
some  acquaintance  with  the  different  schools  of  Greek 
philosophy.  Probably  he  ridiculed  them  all  for  their 
disagreement  as  to  what  was  the  truth ;  and  because 
each  propounded  as  a  rule  of  life  what  had  no  author- 
ity beyond  that  which  resulted  from  its  being  the 
guess  of  the  philosopher  who  had  founded  the 
school. 

2.  Pilate  would  perhaps  have  been  a  happier  and  a 
better  man  had  he  possessed  the  spirit  of  any  one  of 
the  philosophers  whose  efforts  to  attain  the  truth  he 
derided.  But  under  the  circumstances  he  was  not  to 
be  blamed.  And  that  he,  an  educated  Roman,  high  in 
the  service  of  the  State,  was  not  to  be  blamed  for 
22  253 


254  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

speaking  derisively  of  the  truth,  shows  the  necessity 
there  was  for  the  religion  Christ  came  to  establish. 

II. — 1.  If  Pilate  could  revisit  this  earth,  how  sur- 
prised would  he  be  at  the  changes  which  have  taken 
place  in  the  world  since  he  spoke  the  words  before  us ! 
But  perhaps  neither  the  desolation  of  Judaea,  nor  the 
disappearance  of  the  world-wide  empire  among  the  ad- 
ministrators of  which  he  had  held  so  high  a  place, 
would  surprise  him  so  much  as  that  the  Galilean  pea- 
sant whose  words  he  had  derided  had  established  a 
moral  and  spiritual  empire  in  the  world  far  wider  than 
that  of  Imperial  Rome,  and  was  worshipped  as  God. 

2.  And  how  had  this  been  effected  ?  By  the  very 
truth  he  thought  it  so  ridiculous  that  the  Galilean 
peasant  should  make  any  pretensions  of  possessing. 

III. — 1.  And  in  attaining  to  this  dominion  that 
truth  was  unaided  by  any  kind  of  worldly  power  or 
inducement.  The  influence  and  authority  of  Govern- 
ment were  opposed  to  it.  The  sword  was  drawn,  not 
for  it,  but  against  it.  And  it  had,  besides,  to  combat 
both  the  wisdom  and  the  vices  of  mankind.  It  tri- 
umphed entirely  by  its  own  intrinsic  power,  because 
it  was  the  truth.  It  commended  itself  to  the  hearts 
and  to  the  understandings  of  all  men,  because  it  was 
the  truth. 

2.  Nations  and  races  of  men  very  unlike  in  many 
things  have  alike  received  this  truth. 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH?  255 

3.  Nor  have  any  diversities  of  condition  or  circum- 
stances hindered  men  from  embracing  it. 

IV. — 1.  And  what  is  the  substance  of  this  truth  ? 
It  consists,  in  its  simplest  expression,  of  two  propo- 
sitions. The  first  is  what  mankind  had  every  where 
dimly  apprehended, — that  man  is  a  sinner  in  the  sight 
of  God ;  and  the  second  is  what  mankind  had  every 
where  been  seeking  for, — that  a  way  for  reconciliation 
with  God  is  now  opened. 

2.  Texts  on  the  latter  point,  1  Timothy  i.  15.  John 
iii.  15.     Matthew  xi.  28. 

3.  This  is  what  every  thoughtful  soul  would  regard 
as  the  gladdest  of  tidings,  and  what  every  dying  soul 
sees  is  the  main  substance  of  the  truth. 

4.  No  philosophy  can  teach  us  any  thing  higher, 
and  yet  the  most  unlearned  man  can  distinctly  appre- 
hend it. 

V. — This  truth'  has  power  to  raise  the  beggar  from 
the  dunghill  and  to  give  him  a  place  among  princes, 
and  to  which  many  princes  shall  not  attain.  It  makes 
those  who  receive  it  like  Christ,  and  qualifies  them  for 
sitting  with  Him  in  heavenly  places.  It  gives  a  man 
dominion  over  himself.  It  gives  him  the  happiness 
of  the  world  that  now  is,  and  of  that  which  is  to  come. 
It  harmonizes  things  temporal  with  things  eternal. 
It  reconciles  man  to  God,  and  God  to  man. 


STUDY  V. 


THE  OFFENDER   IN   ONE   POINT. 


James  ii.  10. 


''Whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  yet  offend  in  one 
point,  is  guilty  of  all." 

I. — 1.  The  seeming  hardness  of  this  saying  arises 
in  a  great  measure  from  our  translation.  The  word 
"point"  suggests  to  us  some  small  matter,  but  this 
word  is  not  in  the  original.  The  literal  translation 
would  be  "offend  in  one  law;"  i.  e.,  the  man  who 
should  keep  nine  of  the  commandments  but  break  the 
tenth.     This  is  a  very  different  statement. 

2.  "Guilty  of  all"  means  that  he  has  defied  the 
authority  upon  which  all  the  ten  equally  rest.  So  if 
he  were  tempted  to  break  any  other  one,  he  would  not 
be  held  back  from  doing  it  by  the  consideration  that 
he  would  be  breaking  God's  law. 

II. — Another  reason  why  we  are  offended  at  it  is, 
that,  as  no  one  is  without  sin,  in  admitting  it  we  con- 
demn ourselves. 

256  At 


THE    OFFENDER   IN   ONE    POINT.  257 

III. — 1.  We  must  endeavor  to  bring  ourselves  to 
acknowledge  its  force.  Consider  some  of  the  figures 
used  to  express  the  relation  in  which  we  stand  to  God. 
We  are  called  '•  the  children  of  God."  Can  that 
child  be  regarded  as  aflfectionate,  obedient,  or  dutiful 
towards  his  earthly  father,  who  sets  some  one  of  his 
commandments  at  defiance? 

2.  We  are  "the  servants  of  God."  Suppose  we 
had  contracted  to  serve  an  earthly  master,  should  not 
we  break  the  contract  and  forfeit  the  stipulated  com- 
pensation if  we  declined  to  do  the  whole  of  the  work 
required  of  us  ? 

3.  We  are  '' subjects  of  God's  kingdom  upon  earth." 
It  is  no  defence  for  the  subject  of  an  earthly  kingdom, 
when  charged  with  breaking  any  one  of  its  laws,  to 
allege  that  he  has  kept  any  number  of  its  other  laws. 
The  forger  cannot  defend  himself  by  saying,  I  am  not 
a  murderer  or  an  adulterer. 

4.  This  is  the  principle  in  accordance  with  w^hich 
we  judge  others.  We  must  so  judge  ourselves  in 
respect  of  God's  law. 

IV. — 1.  This  principle  is  not  now  announced  here 
by  St.  James  for  the  first  time.  It  is  as  old  as  the 
Law  itself,  as  quoted  by  St.  Paul,  "  Cursed  is  every 
one  that  continueth  not  in  all  things  which  are  written 
in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them."^ 

'  Gal.  iii.  10. 

22* 


258  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHING. 

2.  The  Great  Master  also  tells  us,  "  Whosoever 
shall  break  one  of  these  least  commandments,  and 
shall  teach  men  so,  he  shall  be  called  least  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven."* 

V. — 1.  The  Herod  who  committed  incest  and  be- 
headed John  the  Baptist  is  an  instance  of  the  insuffi- 
ciency even  of  going  so  far  as  to  hear  gladly  the  most 
stirring  preaching  of  the  Word,  and  of  doing  much  in 
conformity  to  it. 

2.  Judas  supplies  a  case  still  more  in  point.  It 
was  the  breach  of  the  tenth  commandment  which 
literally  made  him  guilty  of  others  in  so  aggravated 
a  form,  that  we  see  there  was  nothing  to  hold  him 
back  from  the  breach  of  any  one,  or  of  every  one  of 
them. 

VI. — 1.  Another  way  of  putting  it.  What  is 
meant  is  the  persistent  breach  of  some  commandment, 
any  kind  of  sin  practised  habitually. 

2.  It  is  not  said  of  those  who,  as  Peter  did,  under 
some  extraordinary  circumstances  bend  before  the 
storm ;  they  soon  recover  their  erect  position. 

3.  Nor  of  those  who  have  truly  repented  them  of 
their  former  sins.  It  is  the  glad  tidings  of  the  Gos- 
pel, that  they  are  freed  from  them,  and  are  no  longer 
under  condemnation. 

VII. — We  must  endeavor  to  picture  to  ourselves 

2  Matt.  V,  19. 


THE    OFFENDER    IN    ONE    POINT.  259 

the  mind,  the  character,  the  work  of  Christ.  "VVe 
must  endeavor  in  every  way  we  can  to  acquaint  our- 
selves with  God.  So  may  we  hope  to  be  redeemed 
from  every  thing  that  is  degrading,  that  is  hateful, 
that  is  sinful. 


STUDY  YI. 


GOD  IS  EEVEALED  TO  US  BY  OUR  HEARTS. 


1  JoHx  iv.  8. 
"  He  that  loveth  not,  knoweth  not  God." 

I. — The  highest  place  is  assigned  in  Holy  Scripture 
to  love,  as  a  principle  of  conduct.  It  is  the  fulfilment 
of  the  whole  Law.  This  seems  to  embrace  every 
thing. 

II. —  1.  This  statement,  however,  of  the  Apostle 
John  exalts  love  still  higher.  Love  it  is,  he  says,  that 
reveals  to  us  God. 

2.  This  is  the  highest,  and  most  precious,  and  most 
influential  of  all  knowledge.  No  other  knowledge  so 
changes  and  so  regenerates.  Nothing  so  distinguishes 
man  from  the  brute,  or  so  lifts  a  man  in  thought  and 
feeling  above  those  in  other  respects  his  fellows. 

III. — It  is  not,  then,  so  much  by  reason  that  God 
is  apprehended  as  by  the  heart.  And  this  is  a  fact 
which  our  own  experience  confirms.  Many  a  culti- 
260 


GOD  IS  REVEALED  TO  US  BY  OUR  HEARTS.  261 

vated  mind  sees  not,  knows  not  God;  but  He  is  known 
bj  those  who  have  loving  hearts. 

IV. — This  justifies  that  dispensation  of  God  which 
confines  opportunities  for  mental  culture  to  a  few ;  for 
goodness  of  heart  is  placed  within  the  reach  of  every 
one. 

V. — 1.  It  explains  the  coldness  of  the  worldly  and 
the  recklessness  of  the  sinner.  Their  hearts  are 
hardened  and  corrupted,  and  so  cannot  reveal  God  to 
them. 

2.  The  teaching,  therefore,  of  the  Ministers  of  the 
Word  should  not  be  denunciatory,  but  should  aim  at 
awakening  a  sense  of  gratitude  and  love. 

3.  There  is  much  in  every  heart  to  which  such  teach- 
ing can  appeal.  In  no  one,  probably,  does  God  allow 
this  witness  to  Himself  to  be  completely  silenced.  He 
created  the  heart  with  a  yearning  for  something  to  lean 
against,  something  to  love.  In  the  relations  of  home 
and  of  society,  and  even  in  the  creatures  and  objects 
with  which  He  surrounds  us,  He  is  ever  endeavoring  to 
call  into  exercise  our  good  and  loving  feelings.  Eut 
in  connection  with  all  these  objects  of  love  there  arises 
a  sense  of  imperfection  and  of  perishableness,  of  in- 
security and  of  uncertainty.  No  earthly  friend  can 
be  worthy  of  the  entire  devotion  of  the  heart. 
Nothing  earthly  can  be  secured  to  us  but  from  day  to 
day.  Are  we  then  to  love  those  whom  God  has  made 
near  and  dear  to  us  less  than  vre  do  at  present  ?     Nay, 


262  EXTEMPORARY   PREACHINQ. 

with  these  words  of  the  Apostle  before  us,  we  will 
strive  to  love  them  more  ;  knowing  that  this  will  ever 
be  more  and  more  distinctly  revealing  to  us  God,  the 
one  perfect  and  abiding  object  of  love.  "  Grod  is  love ;" 
and  "he  that  loveth  not,  knoweth  not  God." 


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